LINTON STEPHENS. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



OF 



^ 



LINTON STEPHENS, 

(Late Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia,) 



CONTAINING A SELECTION OF HIS 



LETTERS, SPEECHES, STATE PAPERS, ETC. 



EDITED BY 

JAMES D. WADDELL. 



^* Heu! quanta minus est cum relii/uts 
Versari quaiii tui meminisse.''^ — Shenstone. 



IP?':-. ' :^ 



ATLANTA, GEORGIA: 

DODSON & SCOTT NO. 38 BROAD STREET. 

1877. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in tlie year 1877, 

By JAMES D. WADDELL, 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



TO 

LOGAN EDWIN BLECKLEY, 

( Associate .lustlce of the Supreme Court of Georgia,) 

WHO NOW SO WORTHILY ADORNS THE SEAT ON THAT HIGH 

TRIBUNAL TO WHICH 

LINTON STEPHENS, 

FOR A BRIEF TERM, IMPARTED SPLENDID ILLUSTRATION, 

THESE UNPRETENDING PAGES ARE RESPECTFULLY 
AND 

THERE WOULD SEEM TO BE FITNESS, IN THIS HUMBLE WAY, 

IN LINKING THE NAME OF THE ONE WITH 

THE MEMORY OF THE 

OTHER. 



INTRODUCTION, 



The life of Linton Stephens was one of character rather 
than of incident — more the Hfe of a thinker than an actor 
upon the stage of human aftairs. He chose to be a spec- 
tator of passing events, and was content to weigh their sig- 
nificance and watch their succession through the "loopholes 
of retreat," so as not "to feel the pressure of the crowd." 
He had little relish for the hot arena of the world-strife. 
The mild dignity that environs the good citizen was more 
beautiful and more attractive in his eyes, and more grateful 
to his tastes and habitudes, than ' ' the applause of listening 
senates," or the victor's wreath of laurel. The blaze of 
public notoriety he shunned. He shrunk from all manner 
of self-exposition or display. Vain-glory was not among 
the imperfections of his nature. He was perfectly satisfied 
with knowing the truth of anything, or any fact, himself — 
uncaring whether the outside world appreciated his knowl- 
edge thereof or not ; hence, he had no ambition to make 
history: he was content to study its lessons, interpret its 
facts, and learn wisdom from its teachings. Although it 
was impossible for a man of the parts he had, not to be 
conspicuous among men ; and although his opinions upon 
every subject — large enough to agitate a free people — were 
anxiously sought after, impatiently waited for, and eagerly 
canvassed, yet he never held, nor — left to his own volition — 
ever aspired to hold, high political station. For this rea- 
son, the general reader of these pages will remark the lack- 
ing, somewhat, of that significance of events in the story 
of his life which imparts the chief interest, attraction, and 
charm to biography. 



LINTON STEPHENS. 



The paternal grandfather of Linton Stephens was Alex- 
ander Stephens, an Englishman by birth. He was scarcely 
nineteen years of age when the affair of 1745 transpired ; 
yet, young as he was, he ardently espoused the cause of 
Charles Edward, "the Young Chevalier," as he was called. 
When fate frowned upon the fortunes of the " Pretender's 
Son," the vigilance and the vengeance of exasperated 
power were eluded by seeking refuge in America. He at 
first found shelter and security among the Shawnee Indians 
in the colony of Pennsylvania. This was in the year 1746. 
How^ long he remained among that tribe is not definitely 
known — probably until near the breaking out of the Revo- 
lutionary war. Fifty years had rolled over his head, when 
the curtain rose upon that drama, "yet was his eye not 
dim, nor his natural force abated." He early and eagerly 
embarked in the Colonial struggle for independence. We 
may imagine that the memory of wrongs, real or supposed, 
which he had suftered in his native land, stimulated the zeal 
and nerved the arm of the exile in a cause which his judg- 
ment, without such incentive already approved as just. He 
enlisted as a private, and when Independence was achieved, 
his military rank was that of Captain in the Pennsylvania 
forces. 

Captain Stephens seems to have been of the class of 
men — numerous enough in his day, now almost extinct — 
that "hate ease," are full of enterprise, fond of adven- 



2 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

ture, restless, always moving, if not always advancing. 
Before the close of the war, he married Catharine, daughter 
of Andrew Baskins, a gentleman of repute and the wealthy 
proprietor of what was then, and for years afterwards, 
known as Baskins' Ferry, at the confluence of the Susque- 
hanna and Juniata rivers. The marriage seems to have 
been displeasing to the father-in-law — for what reason we 
cannot conjecture, unless it was, that he looked upon his 
son-in-law as a "Soldier of fortune," bred, as he perhaps 
imagined, in the Dalgctty school, and unworthy of matri- 
monial alliance with a prospective heiress, who should count 
her possessions by so many thousands. Be that as it may, 
after the consummation of the marriage, the daughter was 
discarded ; and Captain Stephens, some time after the war, 
and after all attempts at reconciliation had proved to be una- 
vailing, emigrated to Georgia, in 1795, bringing along with 
him little other treasure than a wife, a large number of 
children, and an unbroken spirit. He first pitched his tent 
in Elbert county, but finally settled in Wilkes, now Talia- 
ferro county, where he died in 18 13. He lived to the pa- 
triarchal age of eighty-seven, and his remains lie entombed 
but a little way distant from the grave-yard of the old 
homestead. 

Andrew Baskins Stephens, son of Alexander, was born 
in the State of Pennsylvania, in the year 1783. He was 
twelve years old when his father moved to Georgia. Fa- 
cilities for academical instruction were limited and scant 
throughout Georgia and the Carolinas at that day. Liberal 
education was the rare distinction of the children of afflu- 
ence only. Not to mention board-bills and traveling ex- 
penses, few could command means wherewith to meet the 
tuition fees of colleges and schools of learning in distant 
and more highly favored sections of the country. Andrew, 
born to no patrimony, shared the common fate of other 
poor boys of the time and neighborhood. The instruction 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 3 

doled out to him must have been essentially rudimental in 
kind, variety and degree. Indeed, the scholastic acquisitions 
of an alumnus of an institution, whose curriculum comprised 
reading, writing and cyphering, and which nothing but the 
inexorable exigence of such a state of society could create 
or would tolerate — the ' ' Old Field School " — could scarcely 
have been grammatical, much less literary. But nature had 
dealt more generously with the boy than fortune. He was 
endowed with uncommon intellectual faculties ; he had 
sound practical judgment; he was a safe counselor, saga- 
cious, self-reliant, candid and courageous. He was held in 
high estimation as one of the " solid men " of the commu- 
nity — a man of inflexible integrity and great weight of 
character. He had large influence over the opinions and 
conduct of his neighbors ; they counseled with him on mat- 
ters of business, unbosomed their cares and vexations to him ; 
he surveyed their lands for them ; defined the metes and 
bounds thereof; and he was the common arbiter who set- 
tled their differences and disputes, and from his decision 
there was seldom any appeal. He was twice married : first 
in 1807 to Margaret, daughter of Aaron Grier and sister of 
the late Robert Grier, whose name is yet a household word 
throughout our Southern States.''^ 

It is among the traditions of the neighborhood, wherein 
she dwelt and died, that Mrs. Stephens was a woman of 
capital sense and fair culture ; remarkable for independence 
of thought; devoted to domestic pursuits; of cheerful, 
amiable temper, and unobtrusive, elevated piety Three 
children only of this marriage survived infancy. These 
were a daughter, Mary, the eldest; Aaron Grier, the next, 
and Alexander H., the youngest, who was born February 
nth, 1812. In 1814, Mr. Stephens married, in second 

* A quarter of a century ago, "Grier's Almanac" hung beside the 
chimney-piece in ahnost every house in the Southern States, wherein a 
copy of the Bible could be found. The late R. C. Grier, of the Supreme 
Bench of the United States, was his kinsman. 



4 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

nuptials, Matilda S. , daughter of Colonel John Lindsay, of 
Wilkes county. He was of Scotch-Irish stock. He bore 
a conspicuous part in the struggle for Independence, rose 
to- the rank of Colonel in the Georgia forces, and was es- 
teemed a gallant officer, and wary, skillful commander. He 
lost his sword-hand in battle, and in consequence of wear- 
ing a covering of silver over the stump, he acquired the 
sobriquet o{ " Old Silver-fist. " After the war, he grew to 
be rich in this world's goods, and, at one time, was the 
owner of valuable landed estates on Little river, near Phil- 
lips' Bridge ; but good fortune finally forsook him ; he be- 
came involved in debt by security, and died leaving his es- 
tate very much reduced. He had eight children, and the 
patrimony, when divided among them, amounted only to 
about six or seven hundred dollars to each. He was re- 
puted to be a man of strong mind, sterling honesty, un- 
bending will, stormy passions ; the concurrent testimony of 
all the famil}' traditions is, that he was ardent in friendships, 
implacable in hate, fond of good cheer, frank, fearless and 
generous to a fault. Some of these characteristics the 
daughter, Matilda, inherited. The basis of her intellectual 
character was good sense ; the basis of her moral character 
was truth ; her manners were dignified ; her disposition was 
quiet and cheerful, and in all the relations of social life, she 
Was exemplary and amiable. Five children were born of 
the second wife, but only three lived to attain majority. 
The eldest, John Lindsay Stephens, was a prominent lawyer 
in the western part of the State, who died in his prime. 
The next was Catharine B., now also deceased. The 

youngest was 

Linton Stephens, 

the subject of this sketch. He was born at the old home- 
stead, some two miles northeast of Crawfordville, on the 
first da}^ of July, 1823. It has been seen that English, 
Irish and Scotch blood were commingled in his veins. The 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 5 

remaining narrative of his life will show that each separate 
current asserted its peculiar quality and power in the con- 
formation of a character which itself avouched the blended 
extraction. For we shall see that he had the sturdy com- 
mon sense, the iron will, the unquailing courage refined by 
chivalry of Hampden ; the emotional nature, the ardent af- 
fections, the unselfish devotion, the noble enthusiasm of 
Grattan ; the subtle discrimination, the cautious circum- 
spection and metaphysical turn of the Scotch mind, as ex- 
emplified in Reid or Stewart. 

His father died on the 7th of May, 1826, and his m.other 
died on the 14th of the same month, just seven days after, 
thus leaving him a complete orphan before he was quite 
three years old. At this time, the surviving children con- 
sisted of Aaron G. and Alexander H., by the first wife, 
and John L. , Catharine B. and Linton by the second. The 
family, of course, had to be broken up. The estate went 
into administration, and the children went to live with their 
kin on the side of their respective mothers. Aaron G. 
and Alexander H., to their uncle's, Colonel Aaron Grier, 
of Warren county, who became their guardian. Linton 
was committed to his grandmother and a maiden aunt on 
his mother's side, where he remained for nearly four years. 
The following extract from a letter to a female friend pre- 
sents a touching and lively picture of the boy and his sur- 
roundings during this period. 

His aunt then lived about a mile from Crawfordville : 

M.^Y 30, 1866. 

The foundation of all my ideas of friendship was laid in 
the school of solitude. It came to me in the form of a 
want, not a possession. The first recollection I have of 
myself, I was an orphan at the age of three years, parcelled 
out, one by myself, in the distribution of the children 
' among different relations at the sad breaking-up of my 



6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

father's household. My memory goes distinctly back to 
that early period of my life. My childhood was without 
companionship, and was felt to be so then. I had my child- 
ish griefs and pains, but there was nobody to whom I could 
say "I suffer;" nobody to whom I could say "I have suf- 
fered." In the main, however, the world seemed very bright 
and beautiful to me — abounding almost in enchantments. 
I well remember the charms which nature used to have for 
me in those days. The woods, the streams, the skies, the 
birds, the luscious fruits, the sweet-scented flowers, the 
green sward in front of the door, the waving and murmur- 
ing forest of pines hard by — the whole glorious creation as 
it unfolded itself to my young soul. I remember one day 
I was so full of the brightness and beauty of the world that 
I ran to my aunt to know how I ever had come into it. 
TJiat thought had never got into my head before. That I 
could and did ask her; but it did not occur to me to tell her 
how beautiful it all was to me — to ask her to share with me 
in my enjoyment of it all. But there was one short and 
bright companionship which crossed my path in those days. 
I was six years old then. It came in the form of a little 
girl named Cornelia Hays, who came and spent a week — a 
whole week — at my aunt's. How she happened to come 
there I do not recollect ; nor can I even now give a rational 
conjecture on the subject; for I was the only child on the 
place, and I can hardly suppose that a little girl came as a 
playmate for a little boy. However that may have been, 
she ivas a playmate ; and I thought a glorious one. She 
was a little older than I, and quite pretty, as I thought then, 
and still think from my present recollection of her appear- 
ance. It was in the time of the dog-woods and honey- 
suckles. How I did delight to climb the trees and bring 
down these flowers, and lay them at the feet of my little 
queen, or put them into her hands, and weave some of 
them into her hair! I loved to serve as her tiring-maid. 
And she? She seemed to enter into the spirit of it all. I 
remember that she particularly enjoyed a slide down a very 
steep hill, which terminated at the bottom in a sand bank 
bordering "the spring branch;" I found a smooth and 
straight track down this descent, and conceived the idea of 
running my "slide" down it. If you don't know what a 
boy's slide is, you can at least form a sufficient conception 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 7 

of it from its name. It is a vehicle which moves in the 
manner indicated by its name. She and I, seated in this 
rude carriage, and with arms locked around each other for 
mutual support during the giddy flight, made the descent 
in a style which was ecstatic to such children as we were. 
On getting to the bottom, I would shoulder the little carri- 
age, and toil with it back to the top again for a repetition 
of the glorious fun. Well, that little witch got all of my 
thoughts out of me in that one week. It was so delightful, 
so charming, to tell her everything. I do not know what 
has become of Cornelia Hays in the long and terrible years 
which have succeeded that one bright week. I have often 
wondered whether she lives, and remembers that week as 
I do. I scarcely think so, however, for such companion- 
ship was an every-day thing to her ; while to me it was an 
oasis in a oreat desert. 



During the year 1830, the administration of the estate of 
his father was wound up. The lands had been sold, and 
the servants apportioned among the heirs. The patrimony 
of each child was found to be four hundred and forty-four 
dollars. John W. Lindsay, his maternal uncle, now be- 
came Linton's guardian. Mr. Lindsay, vrho lived in Up- 
son at the time, removed the ward and his effects to that 
county. The residence was not far from Union Hill. 
There Linton first went to school. His teacher was Master 
Strange — " a good English scholar" — as the phrase then 
was, by which is implied that he was sufficiently familiar 
with the elementary branches of a purely English educa- 
tion, and quite equal to the office of instruction therein, 
to wit: reading, writing, arithmetic and grammar. The 
school was distant two miles from the house of his uncle ; 
the scholastic term extended through the winter months 
only, and having to go and return on foot, it is likely the 
state of the weather and roads interrupted the regularity of 
his attendance. In 1836, he was entered as a pupil in the 
academy at CuUoden, whereof Mr. Ward BuUard was prin- 



8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

cipal.* There his stay was for about one year only, but 
the influences over him were salutary. In the autumn of 
the followilig year, he was transferred to the guardianship 
of his brother, the Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, and took 
up his abode at Crawfordville. Then and there it was " his 
youth awoke first and fully to the life of the mind." Colonel 
Simpson Fouche, a gentleman of ripe scholarly attainments 
and accomplishments, and one of the best educators of 
youth the century has produced, was at the head of a large 
and excellent school at Crawfordville. Under his tuition 
young Stephens was prepared for admission to college. 
The following letter from Colonel Fouche furnishes an in- 
teresting account of the deportment, progress and promise 
of the pupil : 

Jacksonville, Ala., September 26, 1873. 

My Dear Sir — Your letter of the i8th instant, asking 
for my reminiscences of the late Judge Linton Stephens, 
was received some days ago at Rome, Georgia. 

I had charge of the academy at Crawfordville in the year 
1838. The number of pupils in attendance was very large, 
approaching very near to one hundred. Two pupils were 
entered by the Hon. A. H. Stephens, one of them his 
brother Linton, then a youth of some fourteen or sixteen 
years of age, as nearly as I can judge. I had been engaged 
in teaching for a number of years, at Washington in Wilkes 
county, and at Powellton in Hancock — having generally, 
especially at the latter place, a large number of pupils, and 
laboring very earnestly and diligently ; so that the manage- 
ment of the very large school at Crawfordville, with but 
little assistance, was a very heavy task — particularly as the 
youths of that place were pretty wild, and difficult to bring 

■■■- It is a feather in Mr. BuUard's cap that so many of his pupils be- 
came distinguished in after life. Among the contemporaries of Stephens 
at that school were the present Governor of Georgia, James M. Smith ; 
United States Senator, Thomas M. Norwood, etc. ; Robert P. Trippe, As- 
sociate Justice of the Supreme Court, preceded him in the academy by a 
year or two only. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHEi^S. 9 

under proper discipline. Young Stephens was thus, at a 
critical age, subjected to all the seductive influences and 
temptations usually employed by a crowd of thoughtless 
associates, strongly inclined to idleness and mischief. 

Yet he was regular and punctual in attendance, always 
blameless and manly in deportment, diligent and successful 
in study. Indeed, so uniformly correct and industrious was 
he, that I cannot now remember, nor do I believe that I 
ever had occasion, for the slightest reproof of him, for any 
error in deportment or failure in any point of duty, either 
in school or out of it. His progress in every branch of 
learning which he was then pursuing was what might have 
been expected from a youth of fine natural abilities, coupled 
with habits so exemplary. It was not only rapid, but 
thoroughly accurate and scholarly. If you ever taught, you 
can understand me when I say, that instruction to siicJl a 
pupil is no task, but a positive pleasure. The respectful re- 
membrance and intelligent testimonial of such a pupil are 
among the most grateful rewards of a faithful teacher. 

During a very long career as a teacher, I can recall to 
mind no pupil who excelled — few who equalled — him in all 
the characteristics, moral and intellectual, of a thoroughly 
good pupil. 

He was not of the number of those " born to greatness," 
nor yet of those who " have greatness thrust upon them," 
but of that better class who "achieve greatness" by their 
own manly efforts. 

Such are my reminiscences of Judge Stephens. If you 
consider them of any worth, use them. 

Yours, very truly, 

S. FOUCHE. 

In after life, when he had won his way to honorable fame — 
"greatness achieved" — he loved to recur to those privi- 
leged days and to hold in grateful remembrance the valu- 
able offices of his academic mentor. But at this, the form- 
ative period of his life, there was another influence over 
him, stronger and greater than any other and all other ex- 
traneous ones, in giving bent to his tastes and mould to his 
whole character — intellectual, moral and social. It was the 



lO BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

influence of his brother — enforced and energized aHke by 
precept and example. Under that influence, theories of 
mind, of philosophy, of ethics, of religion, were discussed 
and embraced ; the facts of history accepted ; the real aims 
of life interpreted, and the high lessons of duty studied, 
learned and practiced. 

In August, 1839, he was matriculated a freshman of the 
University of Georgia, and at the end of the full term of 
four years was graduated with the first honor, so/;/s, in a large 
class of gifted competitors. Among them may be men- 
tioned the Reverend J. L. M. Curry, D.D., LL. D., Hon- 
orable Edward H. Pottle, General L. J. Gartrell, William 
Lundy, Esq., the late John L. Bird'^S and others who after- 
wards achieved honorable distinction in the various fields of 
labor and life. 

The universal testimony is that his college-life was marked 
by diligent and assiduous studies, outside as well as inside 
of the curriculum, by exemplary deportment, by uniform 
civility to the Faculty of Instructors, and by respectful ob- 
servance of law. The single instance of a fine having been 
imposed upon him, throughout the whole term of his four 

"■* Bird was the cousin of Stephens. He was educated by the Hon. A. 
H. Stephens — one of a large number, who was the favored recipient of 
the like benefaction from the same generous hand. Perhaps no Ameri- 
can of the living, or of the dead, has so liberally aided indigent and de- 
serving young men to defray their educational expenses as the "Sage of 
Liberty Hall;" certainly none, when his pecuniary means — competent 
enough for his own wants, but never aflluent — are taken into account. 
Bird had rare genius ; was full of fun and ho)i-luim{c and there were 
mixed in him the elements of a successful popular leader. He chose the 
profession of law, and shortly after admission to the bar, was elected to 
the office of State Senator. He had little relish for the dnidgoy of legis- 
lation — as little as the Arabian racer may be imagined to have for the 
dray — yet, he conscientiously performed the irksome work of the commit- 
tee-room. On the floor, he rose to the foremost rank of debaters in the 
Georgia Senate, at a time "when there were giants in the land." He 
fell a victim of pulmonary consumption just as the auroral flush was 
brightening ijito the light of unclouded day. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1 1 

years' residence at the University, was levied for the "white 
sin" of "playing the flute during study fiours." He was 
a member of the Phi Kappa So^ety — 

"A school wherein every principle 

Tending to honor is taught, if followed." 

There he won his earliest laurels ; it was the theater of 
his young renown ; and there he first gave earnest of the 
marvelous perfection which he afterwards attained in the 
practice of forensic debate. 

Of this period of his life, the Rev. Dr. Curry writes: 

Richmond, Va., December 21, 1873. 

Dear Sir — In fulfillment of my promise to give you some 
reminiscences of the college-life of Linton Stephens, I state 
that we entered Franklin College in August, 1839, "^^^^^ ^o'^' 
tinued fellow-students until August, 1843, when we gradu- 
ated. Having been class-mates and fellow-members of the 
Phi Kappa Society for four years, I had unusual opportu- 
nities for knowing him very intimately. 

As a student, he was scrupulously attentive to his duties. 
His habits were correct, methodical, exemplary. He was 
too diligent to give much time to social pleasures, and, 
therefore, the circle of his intimate companions was not 
large. By uprightness, frankness, conscientiousness, and 
gentlemanly bearing, he secured the confidence and esteem 
of all his fellow-students. I cannot recall a single instance 
of failure in his recitations. He excelled in all departments, 
and the college records, if preserved, will show that he in- 
variably received the highest marks in all his monthly re- 
ports. When the faculty, at his graduation, awarded to 
him the highest honor, they only gave official certainty to 
the unanimous verdict of the students. In the Literary 
Society, Linton took an active part. His speeches were 
the fruits of accurate reading and careful meditation, and 
were rather characterized by fullness of information and 
closeness of reasoning than by brilliancy or eloquence. To 
have him on a particular side of a question was, in the later 



12 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

days of his college-life, the earnest of victory. Sometimes, 
when aroused, he displayed vehemence and power. He 
hated sham and deception, and dealt honestly with his own 
mind. In the Society, he gave promise of the judicial fair- 
ness, the logical acumen, the breadth of view, and the firm 
adherence to principle, which so distinguished him in his 
brief and useful career. Widely different as were T. R. R. 
Cobb and Linton Stephens, I never knew two young men, 
whose college lives so surely gave promise of future useful- 
ness and distinction. 

^ Yours, truly, 

J. L. M. Curry. 

I am indebted to the kindness of Judge William Lundy, 
another class-mate, for the following interesting reminis- 
cences : 

Macon, October 6, 1873. 

Dear Colonel — In compliance with promise, I herewith 
transmit some reminiscences of the late Judge Linton Ste- 
phens, and my " impressions of the man, particularly such 
as cover his college-life and relate to the formative period 
of his character." At the outset, a remark occurs to me, 
which I made to a gentleman, with whom I was walking, 
when we met and exchanged .salutations with Judge Ste- 
phens, in the city of Atlanta, some two or three years ago : 
"He has not changed, save that time has robbed his face 
a little of its freshness, and the silvery tracings are visible 
upon the dark locks of his hair," which then had been per- 
mitted to grow to an unusual length. It should be pre- 
mised, however, that I did not know Mr. Stephens during 
the earlier part of his college course. I was not with him 
to share the troubles of the timid and often persecuted 
Freshman. I never witnessed any of his encounters as 
Sophomore, with the assumptions and arrogance of the 
more advanced classes — at that period when self-reliance 
(often miscalled self-sufficiency) begins to take deep root, 
and prepares the boy for the storms which await him in 
after life. 

Leaving Mercer University, Junior, half-advanced, I Tna- 
triculated at Franklin College in January, 1842. Soon after 



JUDGE I.INTON STEPHENS. 1 3 

my arrival, I met an old college friend, named Bailey, who 
hailed from South Carolina, and who had preceded me suf- 
ficiently long to become familiar with our new surroundings. 
With him the following colloquy took place : ' ' Dr. Church* 
informs me that you have stood your examination and 
found your same class ? ' Yes ; it is a good class ; there are 
some splendid fellows in it. ' ' Name some of the most 
prominent.' 'There are Tom White, of Elbert; Lafayette 
Lamar and Jabe Curry, of Lincoln, etc., but Linton Ste- 
phens is looked upon as the prospective first-honor man.' 
'Who is Linton Stephens?' ' He is from Taliaferro, and 
brother of the Hon. A. H. Stephens.' I ventured to sug- 
gest that the reputation of the distinguished statesman, 
who even then was regarded as one of the brightest lumin- 
aries in the South, may have had undue influence in giving 
prominence to the younger brother, and secretly resolved 
to take observations and judge for myself. It was not long 
before I was ready to acquiesce in the frankly-expressed 
opinion of my Palmetto State friend. Soon, on the way to 
the recitation-room, I was introduced to the young man 
who had been the special subject of our conversation. 

He was of rather stout build, with dark hair and rather 
heavy eyebrows, giving the eye a deep-set appearance, and 
conveying the impression of inflexible determination. His 
countenance was composed, thoughtful, and serious, almost 
to sadness. He wore a full suit of dark, home-made jeans ; 
for, in those days, there was, perhaps, less said about 
economy than now ; but there was a greater number will- 
ing to illustrate the good effects and full force of a 'philos- 
ophy which teaches by example. ' 

Permit me to remark, in this connection, that G. J. Orr, 
now our popular State School Commissioner, is insepara- 
bly associated in my memory with that old dark, long jeans 
frock-coat he wore so long and so well ; and Ben. Hill, in 
those days, rejoiced in the possession of a full suit of light 
blue jeans, embracing a coat with a skirt of liberal length. 
Others of these homespun boys might be mentioned, who, 
let it be added for the encouragement of the young, have 
since fought the battle of life successfully, and become both 
useful and distinguished among their fellow-men. 

* Dr. Church was at that time President of the College. 



14 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

Returning from this brief digression, I shall first refer to 
the scholastic attainments of our deceased friend. I can 
state, without hesitation, that during the eighteen months 
I was associated with him — and we both belonged to the 
same division of the class — I never knew him to make a 
failure in the recitation-room. Ranking high in all the de- 
partments, he was peculiarly distinguished for his readiness 
in the solution of difficult problems in the higher branches 
of mathematics. During the last term of the senior year, 
a course of lectures was delivered on railroading, engineer- 
ing, and what is now more familiarly known in the schools 
as ' applied sciences. ' Every member of the class was re- 
quired to take notes and write out each lecture — the man- 
uscript, at the close of the course, to be bound and form a 
volume of valuable and useful information. Not un fre- 
quently the notes prepared by Linton Stephens were copied 
and handed in by other members of the class to .save them- 
selves trouble, so implicit was their confidence in his accu- 
racy and reliability. He was a Phi Kappa — I a Demosthe- 
nean ; and, consequently, I am not so familiar as others 
with his performances as a debater. But I remember that 
on a certain occasion — perhaps immediately preceding our 
Junior commencement — some subject of dispute arose, 
which caused much excitement and provoked considerable 
discussion among us. A meeting of students was called in 
the chapel, and organized by the appointment of a presid- 
ing officer. A number of speeches were made, crimina- 
tion and recrimination indulged in, with no peaceful result 
in prospect. At length, Linton Stephens, who had been 
quietly listening, arose, and, in a calm, respectful manner, 
made a short, lucid, well-timed speech, in which the whole 
subject was thoroughly analyzed. There was no assump- 
tion — no arrogance — nothing offensive, but the matter was 
so clearly held up to the light that it was easily compre- 
hended. His was the last speech made, and he was sus- 
tained by the meeting, it being his good fortune, no less by 
cogency of reasoning than by his respectful bearing, to ac- 
complish his purpose, and * pour oil upon the troubled 
waters. ' 

Usually, he was rather taciturn and meditative, but not 
selfishly so ; and often, in our evening strolls, or on the 
way to the boarding-house, when anecdote and fun were 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1$ 

uppermost, he joined with the Httle knot of Hvely young 
fellows, whose sallies of wit and quick repartee made the 
'high dome' ring with peals of joyous laughter. While 
endeavoring to store his mind with the treasures of learn- 
ing, he was not altogether indifferent to the happy influ- 
ences of a spice of mirth. As a gentleman, he was unex- 
ceptional in deportment to both students and professors. 
He conformed strictly with college regulations ; but I will give 
an instance of his complicity with a practical joke, which 
we sometimes played upon Professor James Jackson. Glo- 
rious 'Old Major!' Peace to his ashes! 'The Major' (as 
he was universally called) was fond of anecdote and fun ; 
and a lively disputation with the boys, even on politics, had 
for him great attraction. The history of the ' Yazoo Fraud :" 
its repeal, the burning of the obnoxious records on the 
State House square at Louisville, xvith fire drawn from lica- 
voi, and especially the honorable connection which his dis- 
tinguished father had with procuring a repeal of the dis- 
graceful act, was a topic on which the Major seemed not to 
know when he had said enough or heard enough. One 
evening, after the bell had sounded the recitation hour, it 
was ascertained, between Old College and the old brick 
laboratory, in which was his lecture and recitation-room, 
that only three or four of the class had studied the lesson. 
To avoid the mortification of so large a number answering 
' not prepared,' we agreed to take advantage of the Major's 
pardonable weakness and ' talk against time. ' A young 
man from Columbia county, who had remarkably fine con- 
versational powers, (and of whom the Major was wont to 
say, 'Sir, if you had lived in ancient times, you certainly 
would have belonged to the School of Sophists, and if your 
tongue was a sword, sir, you would make an excellent 
swordsman,') was to begin. Others were to join in and 
lead the conversation in the direction of politics. The 
Major was a little restive, and not disposed to be commu- 
nicative at first — perhaps not entirely unsuspicious. But 
when Linton Stephens, with as much gravity as he could 
command, asked to be informed as to some facts relative to 
the early history of Georgia, and more particularly the 
repeal of the 'Yazoo Act,' the old Professor's countenance 
lighted up with smiles, and he responded at length. We 
plied him with questions, which he answered, totally obliv- 



•.V . 

1 6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

ious of the passage of time, until the college-bell sum- 
moned all from recitation-rooms to the chapel and to ves- 
pers. It was with no little pleasure we heard it announced 
from the chair : ' Young gentlemen, tak'n, take the same 

recitation for to-morrow. ' * 

I am, very truly, William Lundy. 

When young Stephens entered college, there began an 
epistolary correspondence between himself and his brother 
Alexander, which was kept up almost daily — save when 
sickness, or the living epistle, interrupted it — for more than 
thirty years. I have had access to a large portion of that 
correspondence. Almost every topic of the passing time, 
whether of general or personal concern — men, measures, 
subjects of philosophy, of history, of morality, of religion, 
of science, literature, and art, are therein discussed, with 
that freedom, fullness and candor which the abandon of per- 
fect confidence only can genei'ate or justify. Of those 
written by the elder brother during Linton's college-life, 
there is scarcely one which does not contain some word of 
warning, of kindly admonition, and of encouragement in 
the performance of duty ; nor scarcely one wherein he does 
not assert, and seek to impress still more deeply upon the 
mind, his own faith in the reality of virtue, of enthusiasm, 
and the progress of man. A beautiful feature character- 
izing the letters of each is the pure, fraternal affection with 
which they breathe and burn. Some conception of the in- 
fluences under which the subject of this sketch was reared, 
his principles confirmed, his tastes fashioned, his aspira- 
tions kindled, his whole character molded, may be formed 
from the spirit and sentiment of the following letters from 
that brother: 

"•■■The students of the college, who sat under the "Old Major's" in- 
structions, will remember that, when a little excited, with something like 
a stutter, he almost invariably said, "Tak'n, take," meaning simply 
"take." He was an able and popular professor — an accomplished 
scholar; and, while the kindest and most guileless of men, there was no 
lack of the fortiter in re element in his nature. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1/ 

[From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

Crawfordville, January 26, 1840. 



The poet says: 

" A little learning is a dangerous thing : 
Prink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring." 

And there is as much truth as satire in the couplet. To be 
a smattcn-r — to learn enough onl)^ to imbibe the errors of 
the world, and to become puffed up or inflated with the 
conceitedness of self-importance — are no less ruinous to the 
unfortunate subject than disgustful to the whole circle of 
his equally unfortunate acquaintance. To be a scholar — to 
place one's self above the common level — to ascend the 
steeps of science, and climb the rugged cliff of fame — re- 
quire energy, resolution, time, self-denial, patience, and 
ambition. These are not the common qualities of a fickle 
brain, but the higher attributes of genius. He that pos- 
sesses them by disciplining them and subjecting them to 
proper obedience to his own master-spirit, can control not 
only his own destiny, but that of others. . . . Good- 
bye. Let me hear of your doing Avell. Fortune is a web, 
and every man weaves it for himself Tell John howdy 'e, 
and remember me to Lewis and Joseph LeConte, and James 
Green. 



[ From same to same. ] 

Cr.\wfordville, February 2, 1840. 

Dear Brother — I am in receipt of yours of the 29th 
ultimo, and see in it nothing that you need be ashamed of, 
but much that afforded me pleasure — particularly its gen- 
eral spirit of frankness and independence. There is no 
virtue in the human character more noble than candor — 
plain, real, unsophisticated candor; it is the legitimate off- 
spring of truth, and always begets independence. The two 
seldom are separated, and both should be cherished as the 
2 



l8 BIOaRAPHICAL SKETCH OK 

governing principle of real nobleness of soul and all true 
manliness. Some parts of your letter savored a little of a 
morbid excitement ; perhaps you have been stimulating 
your ambition too much, until that which should have been 
the embodied and living sentiment of the soul's deep 
resolve has kindled into a passion, and burns not with a 
healthful action, but a feverish heat. If so, this should be 
corrected, and that speedily, too, else the same breast that 
so fondly cherishes a longing restlessness for fame and dis- 
tinction may come short of its wishes by falling itself a vic- 
tim to its own aspirations. "Vaulting ambition," says 
Shakspeare. "o'erleaps itself;" or, as Byron has most 
beautifully expressed a similar sentiment in relation to 
Kirkc White, in his satire on English Bards and Scotch Re- 
viewers, and paraphrased to suit my present purpose, would 
read thus: (speaking of White's untimely death.) 

"<)li, what a noble heart was here undone, 
When Ainbitioji s self destroyed her favorite son ; 
Yes, she too much indulged thy fond pursuit — 
She sow'd the seeds, but death has reaped the fruit. 
'Twas thine own spirit gave the fatal blow, 
And help'd to plant the wound that laid thee low ; 
So the struck eagle, stretch'd upon the plain. 
No more' through rolling clouds to soar again, 
V'iew'd his own feather on the fatal dart. 
And wing'd the shaft that quivered in his heart. 
Keen were his pangs, but keener far to feel, 
He nurs'd the pinion which impelled the steel. 
While th(^ same plumage that had warm'd his nest 
Drank the last life-drop of his bleeding breast." 

This beautiful allusion, however, to a passion too fondly 
indulged in, refers more particularly to its effect on the 
health of the body than its reaction on the mind itself, 
while it is to this latter view more particularly I wished to 
direct your attention. Bulwer, who is one of the finest 
delineators of character I have ever read, has given many 
illustrations of it. Some of these you will see in the char- 
acter of Warren the artist, in the thirteenth chapter of first 
book of " Tlie Disowned,'' and in the character of Talbot, 
as related in the twentieth chapter of the same book. I 
wish you to read both these chapters soon as convenient, 
as well for your amusement as instruction ; and many hints 
upon the same subject, you recollect, are to be gleaned 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. I9 

from the character of Castruccio {the uiad poei), in " Ernest 
Maltravers. " 

You probably judge of the opinions of others towards 
you from the state of your own feelings, which may have 
become too much excited for your own success, to be suffi- 
ciently cheerful in the company of your associates. A man 
is generally treated by the world as he treats it, and to get 
from others their good-will, esteem and confidence, he 
must generally yield the contribution of his own. 

Upon the subject of aristocraey, to which you allude, I 
would say that there is one kind of aristocracy I with you 
equally despise, but another kind I greatly admire. The 
first is the aristocracy of tuealth and fashion, etc. — a folly 
that is contemptible. The other is the aristocracy (the 
aristos crateo) of honor, principle, good-breeding and educa- 
tion — that awards distinction not to birth or to fortune, but 
to merit and principle, and that, in a word, which proclaims, 
in the language of the Muse : 

"Honor and shame from no condition rise; 
Act well your pari — there all the honor lies." 

This is the aristocracy of nature, and is cast by no heredi- 
tary descent, but is an iinpress given by Dame Fortune to 
her own favorite children. You should not hastily come 
to the conclusion, that without cause you are held in low 
esteem by your fellows ; and if, after due reflection, such 
opinion or conclusion should be confirmed, why, then your 
own independence should cause you wholly to disregard 
such estimation so entertained : not by evidences of disre- 
spect on your part evinced towards them in the way of retal- 
iation — for that would prove you affected by their opinions, 
and not independent and superior to them — but by the ap- 
pearance (which also must be genuine) of a real unfeigned 
disregard for themselves, their feelings, their esteem, their 
love or their hatred, their good-will or their prejudice; I 
say totally indifferent, and neither biased one ivay or the 
other by the show of either class of feelings. This is true 
independence, and anything short of it is a spurious affecta- 
tion. To exercise it, I know, requires great self-composure, 
quick perception, and strength of judgment — with feelings 
high above all prejudice, and, such as would cause a man, 



20 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

under such circumstances, to praise where praise was due 
and censure where censure was due, and to preserve, in all 
his intercourse with such people, the same calm indiffer- 
ence with which he would attend to his horse or administer 
to the wants of other bnitcs in the way of giving them food 
or affording them other relief, or even a little chastisement, 
if required, irrespective of any demonstration of ill-will or 
bad-temper that might be given during the performance of 
his duty. Such I know is a lofty stand for a man to take, 
and requires great power of superior intellect for him to 
maintain ; but when one is able to do it, the same fellows 
who before were snapping and growling and barking at 
everything he did, will soon be seen fawning and wallowing 
at his feet, with all the humility and sycophancy of curs. 

But as I stop, I will do so with Burns' closing stanza to 
his young friend : 

"In plowman phiase, 'God send you speed,' 
Still daily to grow wiser. 
And may you better reck the rede 
Than ever did th' adviser." 

' [ From same to same.] 

February 28, 1840. 

In, relation to the doctrines of the Uni- 

versalists, you allude to in your letter, and particularly in 
that part wherein you request my opinion, I would barely 
say, without entering fully into the subject, that I do not 
agree with him in the belief that there is "no personal 
devil or fallen spirit, and that what is commonly called the 
devil is no more nor less than the inclination of men to do 
evil." What I mean by personal devil is an evil spirit — a 
spiritual intelligence, apostate and fallen. There are doubt- 
less many spiritual intelligences besides the Deity. Some 
are pure or holy and sinless, such as we call angels ; others 
are of natures opposite, being evil, rebellious and disobedi- 
ent, such as in the Scriptures are called devils. Among all 
the spirits or intelligences, whether apostate or not, there 
are doubtless grades : some are superior and some inferior 
in the scale of existence. There are seraphim and cher- 
ubim, and perhaps many other grades, amongst the angels; 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 21 

and as Gabriel and Michael and some others seem to stand 
highest with them, even so Satan seems to stand first, or 
archangel, amongst the fallen spirits, and is emphatically 
called '"tJie devil." Now, there may be, and no doubt is, 
much error in the world about "the devil tempting men," 
etc. My opinion is, that the devil tempts men just as one 
bad man tempts another. Mind is subject to influence, 
and spirit acts upon spirit; and as even amongst men the 
associations of bad company are contaminating in their 
influence, so much more will it be the case with him who 
suffers his desires, propensities or affections to be directed 
to improper objects, or dwell upon improper subjects: for, 
in addition to his natural inclination, being himself depraved, 
the company of his thoughts, by the communion of spirits, 
will soon be courted by the great q.\\\. genius, who is "going 
about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour" — 
all upon the same law governing the association of men, 
except the language and such other influences as come 
through the medium of sense. So, you perceive, I have 
no doubt either of the existence of such an intelligence, 
personage or being, or the influence of his associations 
upon the minds and principles of men. 

Your conclusions from my premises or principles, touch- 
ing the nature of future punishments, were clearly correct. 
If punishment or sufferiv.g be a necessary result from the 
laws of the soul, existence or being, in a certain state, it 
must continue so .long as such state continues unchanged, 
which will be forever. It was certainly a very absurd .idea 
of the preacher's about the two infinite existences, and the 
^' sequiter'' he deduced. But, by-the-by, to put one's self 

to the trouble of following such a fellow as B , and 

detecting his errors and sophistries, seems to be one of 
those cases in which the doctrine of the maxim, " Operce 
prethiin non est,'' would most aptly apply. The labor would 

cost more than it comes to A. H. S. 

• 

[ From same to same. ] 

Crawfordville, March 3, 1840. 

Dear Brother — I wrote you a letter which left here on 
last Sunday night's mail, and now send a few more lines, 
just because I have an opportunity. All the news since 



22 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

that time is that we have been disappointed in our court, 
in consequence of the ill-health of Judge Andrews. The 
court that should have been held stands adjourned till the 
fifth Monday in this month. 

Dr. Bird has moved his quarters to this part of town, 
and has taken board with us — that is, with Uncle Bird. 
We now have quite a professional club : Mr. Cook and his 
lady, teachers ; myself, Mark Johnston and Daniel Roberts, 
gentle ynen of the bar; and Dr. Bird, of the healing art. 

Mr. Baker will take up for you one of my summer coats, 
which, if it fits, you can wear. But be very cautious in 
changing your dress as the warm weather comes on. This 
is the most dangerous season in the year for influenza and 
such catarrhal affections as sometimes end in consumption. 
Indeed, I am disposed to think that the spring of the 
year has more effect upon the general health of the system 
than any other. It is true that its effects are not so plain 
and perceptible ; that people then are more generally un- 
healthy ; but that is only owing to the nature of the influ- 
ence it is exerting — it is only more latent or secret ; or, 
what may be more true, it is a kind of secd-tivie of disease — 
passing pleasantly by, while it sows deep the seeds of death, 
leaving summer and fall to attend to the harvest. However 
this may be, my experience teaches me that spring has 
always been the critical period with myself, and I have 
noticed a similar effect upon others. The same effect is 
also witnessed upon trees. Almost all fruit and forest trees 
(except pine and cedars) seem to sicken, decline, and decay 
and die in the spring, soon after the commencement of 
vegetation and the flowing of the sap — except when the 
death may be attributed to some direct cause, such as 
drought or wounds, etc. The philosophy of the thing I 
don't pretend to explain ; but it seems that from a change 
in the circulation, vitality, etc., the equilibrium in the prin- 
ciple of life is more difficult to sustain. And so with the 
human system : at that time the circulation is more ob- 
structed, and some of the organs seem to be loaded with 
accumulated secretions, producing dullness, while slowly 
and stealthily disease is making the most dangerous ad- 
vances upon the constitution. But enough of this. Never 
grow careless of your health, nor too cautious of it. There 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 23 

is in this, as in all things, a golden mean, which should, if 

possible, be maintained 

I commenced this letter on one-half sheet only, intend- 
ing" to send you a few lines, but some how I have spun it 
out so that I have called in an additional scrap to conclude 
upon. Last night, between seven and eight o'clock, we had 
one of the most gorgeous displays of nature I ever wit- 
nessed: it was a meteorological phenomenon, which made 
its appearance directly in the west. The atmosphere had 
been, and was dry and loaded with smoke, and during the 
evening it had become somewhat cloudy from the south- 
west. At the time of the evening mentioned, it was quite 
dark, and heavy thunder was heard in the distance, off to 
the southwest, with occasionally a gleam of lightning, 
brightening or lighting up the atmosphere without any ap- 
parent source of locality, when directly toward the west a 
faint light was at first perceiv^ed at an angle of about ten 
degrees with the horizon, as if reflected from some distant 
fire ; it soon, however, grew brighter and brighter, until, 
within a few minutes, the whole western hemisphere was 
encircled in its extent, presenting just such fiery redness as 
you might suppose would have been the case if some large 
city, ten miles off, had been wrapt in flames — making, in 
the darkness of the night, the far-off clouds the signal of 
distress. Many were the spectators to the scene. Some 
thought Greenesboro was on fire, or some other great fire 
was raging, while I was fully confirmed in the opinion that 
it was electrical in its origin. It at last became so bright 
that the forest trees could be distinctly seen in its direction 
for a mile off, and presented the app arance of an eastern 
sky of a thick smoky night just before the moon's disc can 
be discerned above the horizon's edge. Its continuance 
was about ten minutes, and was in full splendor when ob- 
scured by gusts of wind and rain, with thunder and light- 
ning, which added somewhat to the grandeur of the scene. 
I was at Scott's Hotel in the piazza, and was the first to 
observe its appearance and full developments, and I never 
before saw anything of the kind — not even the aurora borcalis 
in 1836 — to equal it in richness and splendor. It was one 
of nature's grandest shows ; and yet, hundreds of this 
world's groveling crowds gazed upon it with as little thought 
as they would upon a huntsman's torch — so prone to earth 



24 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

in their cares and afflictions, they have no admiration for 
the beauties of the heavens — and would not be half as 
much affected by a similar exhibition, even doubled in 
magnificence, as they would be by a single glimpse at the 
pale and troubled light of the flickering ignis fahnts. But 
I must stop, or I shall have to call in even another scrap to 
envelop this. I write to-night as a dyspeptic eats — with 

a coming appetite 

Affectionately, 

A. H. Stephens. 



' ' The progress of the age " has frowned down the old-time 
custom of the younger brother donning the half-worn 
clothes of the elder; but the fact hardly helps to refute 
the theory, that there are two kinds of progress — the one 
Hpii'ard, the other dou'wivard. 

[ From same to same.] 

Crawfordville, March 29, 1840. 

Dear Brother — I hope you are 

studious, and active in exercise. Don't forget or neglect 
your common-place book. Pen down all interesting 
thoughts, and don't be too choice in the selections of your 
interesting thoughts, for fear you will pen none. Recollect 
that thought is a prolific something, and one always begets 
another ; begin with something. I should like also if you 
would send me a copy of your compositions. I want to 
see what you are doing 

[ From same to same. ] 

Crawfordville, April 5, 1840. 

Dear Brother — ...... The past week has 

been one of great excitement and labor to me; indeed, al- 
most greater than my strength could bear. It was our Su- 
perior Court week, you know, and the business was not got 
through with until Friday morning. We sent Kirkland to 
the penitentiary for seven years : he that procured Far- 
mer's negro woman to poison her mistress, or to make the 
attempt. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 2$ 

I -was glad to see you had taken up the " Last Days of 
Pompeii." It is a work of great merit, though it hardly 
does justice to the early Christian advocates. In that par- 
ticular its greatest defect consists. I think Buhver, in one 
sense, greatly Scott's superior in novel-writing ; his mind is 
of a higher order — he is more profound and met'aphysical— 
in a word, more Platonic — while Scott is easier, more de- 
scriptive and can deal successfully in a much greater variety 
of character. Scott's best characters — that is, the ^?rs^ draivn 
are his loivcst — Bulwer's best are his highest 



Among the earliest and deepest impressions made upon 
the mind of Linton Stephens was that of reverence for the 
Supreme Being ; he accepted tlie Bible as a Divine Reve- 
lation ; no occasion of hilarity, in the society of wild and 
thoughtless spirits, ever betrayed him into profanation of 
things deemed sacred ; and for the professors of religion, 
\\hose faith was exemplified in their walk and conversation, 
he ever manifested the highest jespect. While at college, 
he became a communicant of the Presbyterian Church — 
then under the charge of the Rev. Nathan Hoyt, D. D. 
The two letters following, from his brother, relate to that 
subject, and exhibit a solicitude at once anxious, considerate 
and beautiful : 



[From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

Crawfordville, May 5, 1840. 

Dear Brother — The subject of 

Religion has been one that I have seldom alluded to in my 
correspondence with you, either in words or by letter. The 
principle upon which I acted (I believe) required me to 
pursue such a course. Perhaps, hereafter I may dwell 
more at large upon the subject. Let me hear frcm you 
often. I was going to give you some advice, but (ear to 
do so. If I were with you, I might ; for then I could 
better judge of its propriety ; but as it is, I cannot. Read 
your Bible — make it your text-book of faith 



26 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

Crawfordville, June 2, 1840. 

Dear Brother — I cannot, how- 
ever, utter to you the intensity of feeHng I sustain, when 1 
think of the temptations and. dangers of your new situation. 
I hope your prudence and confiding rehance upon a Supe- 
rior Ruling Providence, whose protection and guardianship 
are always extended to those who trust themselves to His 
grace, will preserve you harmless. I never like to be a lec- 
turer, or to give advice, because I am so sensible of my own 
errors and imperfections. And this is why I have said so 
little to you upon subjects of religion, morality and duty. 
But I trust you will not think the less on them yourself, or 
be more remiss in your actions. If I have said nothing, it 
is not because I felt nothing. I do hope, therefore, that 
you will not even trust yourself to your judgment or cau- 
tion, but ask assistance from One who is able to direct you 
daily. I believe in a special providence. Of all Christian 
virtues, cultivate humanity and meekness and a spirit of 
dependence upon the great Ruler of the universe — "for 

every good and perfect gift." 

Yours, affectionately, 

A. H. S. 

Concerning the opinions and principles of the prom- 
inent founders of the government — their different theories 
and their personal and political merits — we have the follow- 
ing letter, evoked by one of inquiry from Linton : 

[ From same to same. ] 

Crawfordville, August 2, 1840. 

Dear Brother — It is Sunday, and I send you a few lines 
in answer to yours of yesterday. I shall write you again 
by Tuesday night's mail, sending on fifty dollars, if, in the 
meantime, I should not get some way of sending it by 
private, safe hands; and that is why I now write you, that 
you may, on Wednesday, expect the letter. In refer- 
ence to that part of your letter devoted to politics, and the 
opinions of Judge Dougherty about the principles of the 
Federalists, etc., I would barely say that, in the beginning 
of our government, under the new organization, in 1787-88, 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 2/ 

all who were in favor of the ratification of the Constitution, 
or were friendly to the compact — or Fcedus, as it was called — 
assumed the name of Federalists ; those who opposed it took 
the various names of anti-Federalists, or Democrats, Re- 
publicans, etc. At that time, Madison and JeiTerson were 
known as Federalists, or friends to the Constitution. Pat- 
rick Henry, and many other noble sons of Virginia, were 
opposed to it. After the Constitution, however, was rati- 
fied, and the government went into operation, many meas- 
ures were proposed, which some of the friends of the Con- 
stitution thought were not authorized by that instrument, 
and which, if carried out, would centralize all power in the 
General Government, to the subversion of the States. 
That class, of course, fell back into the ranks of the Re- 
publicans. Amongst these were Mr. Jefferson and Mr. 
Madison, and many others ; while Patrick Henry and others 
fell into the ranks of the Federal class, saying that these 
powers, the others were then complaining of, were granted 
in the Constitution, and it was too late then to raise any 
complaint; that they had warned them of the danger; had 
foretold these consequences, and it was now too late ; the 
Constitution was established, and the country had to abide 
by it. Many of the measures of the Federalists of that 
time — say from 1790 to 1800 — were, no doubt, good ones, 
while others were truly obnoxious — particularly the one 
against aliens, and one upon the subject of sedition, which 
to this time are known as Alien and Sedition Laws. It was 
those measures which showed a disposition, on the part of 
the Federal party, to be grasping powers not delegated, 
that caused the overthrow of that party, in 1800, by the 
election of Mr. Jefferson. Mr. Jefferson, of course, did 
not take his seat until 1801, (4th March.) The canvass, 
however, was in 1800. But, considering the merits oi vaosi 
of the obnoxious measures of those days, apart from all 
party or personal character or bearing, just as you would 
look at the laws of ancient countries, I believe there is not 
a great deal more to censure in them than many of the 
laws we have had passed in much later times. The patriot- 
ism, however, of those men who were called Federalists, 
even at the election of Mr. Jefferson, no man can doubt. 
They were amongst the earliest and most devoted friends 
and movers of the Revolution, and were among the mas- 



28 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

ter-spirits that struggled for and aided in the acknowledg- 
ment of our independence. They were all, no doubt, 
friends to free government, but differed, as men always 
will, as to the best method and means of administering it. 
It is true that Mr. Jefferson, in his Anas (some notes 
published at the end of his works,) intimates, and 
clearly indicates his belief that a large party then existed 
in the country, favorable to a monarchy; but, for my own 
part, I do not believe one word of it. His aim was at Ham- 
ilton ; but he was, in point of mind, intellect, integrity, 
manly bearing, and patriotism, high above all such suspi- 
cions. Jefferson even intimates openly, in one of his letters, 
that Washington was aspiring to a throne. With Hamil- 
ton's notions of government I do not agree ; but that he 
was in favor of changing it into a kingly government, none, 
I think, would pretend to believe, who knows anything of 
his opinions of the formation of the Constitution. He was 
truly a great man, but his theories did not suit the genius 
of our institutions. You will see a good sketch of his life 
in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, under the title of his name, 
I think ; or, maybe it is the American Encyclopaedia. For 
a full and accurate history of all those, and that which / 
like, I refer you to a late work called the " Olii>e Branch.'" 
You can get it in the library. I wish you to read it, and 
at this time, as your mind is now more or less directed to 
those periods by daily conversation, and on that account 
more susceptible of receiving and treasuring up a large 
fund of useful history and good information. I have not 
seen the book since I was in college, and there I got all my 
knowledge (except small gleanings occasionally from other 
quarters) upon the subject. I have written a great deal 
more than I exptcted 

I dreamed last night you were dead ; and, while no be- 
liever in dreams, I have, nevertheless, all day been more or 
less under the influence of the strange phantasm. 

Thursday I have to be at Camak at a Harrison meeting 
and barbecue, if I am able. Yesterday was a great day at 
Raytown — a barbecue and speeches from Gamble, Foster, 
Sayre, Johnson, (of Greene,) and Toombs. The weather 
was very unfavorable, and yet, I suppose, over two thou- 
sand people were there. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 2g 

[ From same to same. ] 

Crawfordville, August 26, 1840. 

Dear Brother — I am in receipt of yours of the 23d in- 
stant. With its general character and style, I was better 
pleased than I have been with any received from you in 
sometime past. I am in hope you will get entirely over 
your costive habit of ' letter-writing, and become /rcej- in 
style and fuller in matter. My "surmise," I think, is hav- 
ing its desired effect in spurring you up. By-the-by, it 
was altogether a surmise, or an inference of my own, from 
(/ata within my own possession. I have but to converse 
with a man, or see the products of his brain in writing, to 
form a very satisfactory conclusion touching the state of his 
mind — whether idle or industrious, active or indolent, 
sprightly or sluggish — and it was from this source I derived 
my opinion upon the subjects of your studies during the 
last term. You must not suffer yourself to fall into care- 
less and relaxed habits of thought; for you may be sure 
the effect of such habits will soon reach the discernment of 
all ; and that I may still keep you on the spur, I will direct 
your attention to some sentences and forms of expression 
in your last, that, I think, could have been bettered, and 
this I do the more readily, as I am so much better pleased 
with the letter than I have been with any lately received, 
and because your habit of writing is now forming, and 
whatever kind you form now, you will be apt to conform to 
all your life. And at first, it is about as easy to form a 
good habit as a bad one, and about as easy to adopt an 
easy, clear and correct style as a dull, clumsy and inaccu- 
rate one. In your first sentence, then, you say: "I re- 
ceived your letter on/y in time to have answered it one mail 
sooner." The word "only" is out of its proper place; it 
should have been just before "one mail;" thus: "I re- 
ceived your letter in time to have answered it on/r one mail 
sooner." Again you say: "It (my letter) arrived here 
much before Y took it from the office," etc. Much before, 
you perceive, is not a very suitable equivalent for souieivne, 
or several days, etc., as you evidently intended it. Again 
you say: "But I think if I had have had justice, I should 
have got the letter from the office," etc. How do you 
parse "had have had?" You must make it in a kind of 



JO BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

phi-plus qiiam-perfect, not known to the common standards. 
The use of this form of expression is a common error in 
this country. Many persons, who know better, or ought 
to know better, have fallen into it. In common parlance, 
it is "if I had of had," or " if I had of gone," or " if I 
had of seen him," etc. ; or, in common style still, it runs 
thus: "If I'd a had," or "I'd a gone," or "I'd a seen 
him," etc. : all wrong alike. The plu-perfect of the verb 
"to have" is " had had," without the "have." If I "had 
had justice," etc., "if I had gone," or "had seen him." 
But again you say: "It is more than probable that my 
letter to you had been opened, as it might have been sup- 
posed to have had money in it," etc. This is another form 
of expression, and a use of the perfect of the infinitive 
mood, instead of the present, no less common than im- 
proper. If the letter, from its appearance, had been sup- 
posed to Jiavc had money in it, of course it would have 
been a previous matter, and there would then have been no 
inducement to open it; or, in other words, the appearance 
of its having had money in it would imply that it had none 
in it at the time. The expression should have been: "It 
is more than probable that my letter to you had been 
opened, as it might have been supposed to have money in 
it." Read Kirkham's grammar, page 193, and Murray on 
the tenses. 

Besides these, I would barely hint at your orthography, 
which, in some instances, might be corrected. Such as 
government has an n in it, and manner is not properly 
spelled without two of the same nasal sounds or char- 
acters. "Mentained, " also, I suppose, you meant for 
"maintained." The word "reckon," I think, you are 
beginning to misapply, if not misuse ; it is by no means 
equivalent, in signification, with "think," "suppose," 
"suspect," or "expect." Georgians misuse this word 
more than the Yankees do the word "guess." I 
would advise you to read over your grammar, at leisure, 
cursorily. Much good information is to be got from it ; 
and make it a matter of daily consideration with you to 
attend to the minuticB of things, and to be correct (not pe- 
dantic or dogmatical) in all. When awake, keep your mind 
always ivide awake. In your history lessons that you com- 
plain of, I think you might, with 2i little system, soon get so 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 3 1 

as to master twenty pages at or for one recitation. The 
best system is to take the whole lesson in one scope or 
view. Get the mind fixed upon the prominent events re- 
lated in it, and the order of their succession, without the 
author's language ; then the when, the where and the who 
come in almost of their own accord. With a little close 
and intense application of the mind at first, in drilling it 
and bringing it by a rigid discipline to this system, you will 
soon be enabled even to astonish yourself at the ease with 
which you will acquire (and with accuracy, too) the details 
of such recitations. It requires labor, study and close at- 
tention for awhile, but, if properly trained, a faculty of the 
mind will soon develop itself, not very unlike that which, 
with a little practice, is so easily acquired in looking upon 
paintings, and which is so necessary to the proper appreci- 
ation of the beauties and illusions of the perspective. It 
is a species of abstraction which some never attain, but 
only because they do not try in the right way. Read 
over your lesson first hastily ; get its general import. Have 
the outlines fixed deeply, as those of a map, upon your 
mind. Let this be done with eyes off the book as much as 
possible ; and then in the same way let the details follow ; 
instead of marking a name with a pencil, and leaving it in 
the book, transfer the whole by the process of abstraction 
to the canvas of your brain, and let the impression be 
made upon its tablet. 

When I first commenced those "reading studies," as we 
called them, they seemed the most difficult of any I had 
met with. I disliked them exceedingly. But after a little 
exercise in them, and when I found it was useless to at- 
tempt to know anything about a recitation in one of them 
without knowing everything, I soon commenced what 
seemed the intense labor of mastering everything in each 
lesson by impressing the whole subject upon my own mind, 
and thinking as little of the book as possible, and it was 
not long until those were the easiest lessons I had. It re- 
quires a good deal of time, though, at first. The faculties 
of the mind are like raw militia: they must be trained and 
drilled before they can effect much, and many of your class, 
you will find, never will give theirs the proper training and 
drilling; and it is when you get into studies where others 
fag, that you should especially exert yourself; for these are 



32 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

the only points in the race where anything is to be gained. 
Where it requires nothing extraordinary, there will always 
be some to share the place with the first. The commonest 
fellow can spell "baker," as well as the ablest scholar. 
There must be something that requires the exercise of 
stronger mental powers to show the difference, and when 
you get into a study difficult for the class generally, that is 

the time to distinguish yourself 

• 

[ From Linton to A. H. S. ] 

Athens, March 14, 1842. 

Dear Brother — Yours of yesterday was received this 
morning, and I take the earliest opportunity of answering 
it, to let you know that the money you put in it has been 
safely received. The conveyance of that letter seemed 
somewhat mysterious, though I account for it in this way: 
at home, yesterday, you wrote it, sealed it, and on leaving 
for Greenesboro carried it to the post-office with the inten-" 
tion of mailing it, but in the hurry and confusion of start- 
ing, even the fifty dollars it contained were not sufficient to 
quicken your memory. That you originally intended to 
mail it in Crawfordville is clearly indicated by the direc- 
tion on its back to "charge A. H. S. " with postage. 
After writing that direction, you must have forgotten 
the letter, or else you changed your mind and carried it 
on to " Union Point," hoping to meet with a private con- 
veyance which would be more safe than the mail. The 
latter conjecture is extreinely improbable, however, unless 
I consider that you expected to find some acquaintance com- 
ing here, in which case this service would unquestionabh^ 
have been preferable to mail conveyance ; but that )'ou 
should have more confidence in a stripling of a stranger, 
than in the mails, is somewhat strange. It is also a little 
mysterious that when I asked for only ten dollars, you have 
sent me fifty — for forty of which I have no use, and if 

John Bird wants any, it is more than I know 

The most judicious disposal I can make of it, however, will, 
I think, be to divide it with John, so that each of us can 
advance for board twenty or twenty-five dollars. 

Yesterday, for the first time, I heard a sermon from Judge 
Longstreet. In the pulpit, to me he appeared awkward, and 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 33 

to come much below himself. In preaching, he sometimes 
used Latin phrases and terms of expression unbecoming" 
his place. In praying, for instance, I recollect he said in a 
very cold, conversational manner, "Lord, we can hardly 
generalize our sins, much less specify them," which, though 
used by a very devout man, seems to be very much op- 
posed to that earnestness and dignity with which we should 
address ourselves to a very Superior Being. Though his 
manner is not suited to the pulpit, yet I think even there 
he shows he has genius. Next Saturday, I think our society 
will adjourn for the April examination. You may expect 
my next circular to show me deficient in attending church. 
In other respects, I have been perfectly punctual. I ex- 
pect to be appointed junior orator, and if I should be so 
fortunate, with your knowledge of my mind, would you 
advise me to attempt a grave and sensible speech, or one 
of the gentle and insinuating kind; or would you rather 
still advise me to be facetious and witty f 

In giving me an answer to this question, I beseech you, 
above all things, to spare your sarcasm. ....... 

Yours, affectionately, 

Linton Stephens. 

[ From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

Crawfordville, March 20, 1842. 

Dear Brother — Yours of the i6th instant, acknowledg- 
ing the receipt of the fifty dollars, was received upon my 
return from the Greene court. I presume you have before 
this received another from me sent by Judge Dougherty, 
together with some collars and bosoms. This morning I 
got a letter from John, mailed yesterday. To-night I go to 
Augusta, and shall not, or do not expect at least, to return 
before Wednesday. I regret to hear that you will probably 
be deficient in anything in your next circular. It is so easy 
to be punctual in attendance at church ; a deficiency in this 
particular is the less excusable. I also regret to hear you 
speak of Rhetoric as being the hardest study you have, and 
my reason for regretting this is, that it leaves me with the 
impression that you are not properly drilled in the right 
way of studying it. Rhetoric, properly taught, is one of 
the easiest and most improving and useful studies of a col- 
3* 



34 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF ^ 

lege course, and to me it was the most interesting. But it 
requires some training to get in the right way of learning 
it. It is to be effected by system, method and generahza- 
tion. The usefuhiess of tlie study depends mostly upon 
its effect upon the mind in subjecting it to system and 
method, and the exercises it imposes upon the memory. 
It should never be taught or learned by questions and an- 
szvej'S. You might as well attempt to teach the beauties 
of a piece of painting, to a mind unacquainted with the 
aft of catching the perspective, by a similar system of in- 
terrogatories. In the study of rhetoric usefully, the mind 
must be first taught to put forth its strongest faculties, and 
survey and scan the entire subject — that is, the lecture for 
any given recitation. The author's object being thoroughly 
understood, his manner of treating it, and his various sub- 
divisions, soon occur easily to the mind, which naturally 
again suggest his ideas, and then the task is performed, and 
the whole lecture is indelibly impressed upon the mind 
like a map or chart spread out before you. In mastering 
a lesson in rhetoric, the author's words should never be 
studied ; if they occur readily to the mind in reciting, they 
should be used, but in studying, the 'memory should not 
be taxed to retain them ; the ideas and the order in which 
they come in the lecture should be the task of the student. 
The ideas he should convey in his own words. For when 
he understands his author, and knows what his ideas are, 
the student can always have words at command to commu- 
nicate and make known what they are. But it is a remark- 
able fact, that with a little practice with this kind of study, 
so quick does the memory become, and so retentive of an 
impression, that the student will be enabled to repeat 
almost the identical words of his author from beginning to 
end. This strengthens the memory and imparts vigor to 
the mind, and enables the faculties to encompass a whole 
subject at once, and understand the whole and every part 
at the same time. This is exceedingly necessary for writers 
and public speakers. When' a student, therefore, goes to 
recite a lesson in rhetoric, or moral philosophy, or any such 
studies, he should know everything in his recitation, and 
be able forthwith, and without hesitation, to repeat, if called 
on, every idea in it, just as he would tell, if called on, 
what he heard a man say on any particular subject on a 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS, 35 

given occasion. As, for instance: suppose the lesson is in 
Blair, and the subject is his lecture on "Style." At the 
first "•lance, the mind will scan his manner of treating; it, 
commencing with general remarks about the diversity of 
style in authors, then the various kinds of style, and then 
the rules for forming a correct style. Unoer the first head, 
many smaller and subordinate ideas, where the general 
plan is fixed in the mind, naturally suggest themselves with 
little or no eiTect : such as, that all authors have a peculiar- 
ity of style distinctive in each, difference between Livy and 
Tacitus, etc. , and other ideas that fill up that view ; and the 
different kinds of style, such as concise and diffuse, then 
contrasted, the advantages and disadvantages of each, and 
the instances of authors distinguished for each, etc., which 
is all easily recollected and repeated — that is, the idea, but 
not the words — and the same of the weak and nervous, 
dry, plain, neat, elegant and flowery, and then on to the 
simple, affected and vehement: these made all distinct in 
their order on the mind ; the filling up, or the remarks 
made upon each, come to the mind almost naturally; and 
then comes the winding up of the subject, the directions 
for forming a correct style, to wit: a thorough understand- 
ing of the subject, frequent composition, acquaintance with 
good styles, or the style of distinguished authors — not, how- 
ever, running into imitation, or adaptation of the style to 
the subject and occasion — not to be poetical when you 
should reason ; and, lastly, not to permit the mind to be 
too much "engrossed" with style to the exclusion of mat- 
ter ; in other words, that, however important style may be, 
it should always be held subordinate to ideas, and that 
more attention should be given to thoughts and sentiments 
than mere style ; and with this the task is performed. And 
what is more easy? When once you get in the way of it, 
you will find it the easiest study learned. The mind will 
take it readily, and you will be astonished at the amount 
of learning you can acquire. To me, at first, it appeared 
very hard, because I had nobody to teach me; but when 
Olin became professor, and gave us a few lectures, the whole 
subject assumed a new appearance, and the study became 
delightful; and when I graduated, there was no subject 
in Blair, Paley, Say, Evidences of Christianity, Brown's 
Moral Philosophy, or Hedge's Logic, that I could not have 



36 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

told everything about instantly, or as fast as I could have 
spoken ; and I could have commenced at the beginning Oi 
the catalogue above named and have given substantially 
everything contained, from the beginning to the end, with- 
out interruption or suggestion. The same principles of 
system, method and analysis, I brought to the study of 
law; and when I was admitted, I could have rehearsed 
Blackstone in the same way. The whole I attributed to 
Olin's method of teaching, and I would not have given the 
advantages to myself derived from that for all my college 
course besides. It has been of more use to me. It called 
forth all the powers of the mind, and taught it to exercise 
its every faculty. My previous instructions were like keep- 
ing a child forev^er sliding and crawling. Olin made us 
stand up and walk. A little assistance was at first neces- 
sary, while the knees were weak, and before strength and 
confidence were acquired ; but soon we (I mean the whole 
class, for there was no student in the class that did not un- 
derstand the studies) began to walk without assistance, and 
then to run and bound, and become the perfect masters of 
all our faculties. I wish you to adopt the right system in 
these studies, and to become perfectly master of them. 
When a subject is mentioned,, be able to give an outline of 
the whole, and show that you have studied your author by 
being able, without assistance, to go on and tell what he 
says. 

But I can say no more to you now. In reference to the 
subject of your junior speech, if you should be elected 
orator, I can hardly undertake to give you any advice. 
Suppose you write several, one of each character you men- 
tion, and submit them to me. I could then give you an 
opinion ; and, as for the trouble of writing them, it will 
cost you only a little time, and you will be benefited by 
the exercise. A subject of rather a grave character, which 
I think might be treated well, is a comparison between the 
ancients and moderns. The general feeling and sentiment 
is, that the people of this age — I mean in the enlightened 
portion of the world — are superior to enlightened men of 
older times. For myself, I don't believe any such thing. 
It is true, we have some improvements in the sciences — par- 
ticularly in astronomy and chemistry; but in many things 
that make man truly great — that show the powers of his 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 37 

mind, and the boldness of his conceptions, and the high 
and lofty sentiments of his soul — I think the ancients were 
greatly our superiors. Look at their works, their build- 
ings and temples, and various monuments of their great- 
ness, which, after withstanding the ravages of centuries, 
are even still unequaled by anything that man, in subse- 
quent time, has done or accomplished. Why, even the 
public roads leading from the city, constructed and made 
before the Julian day, are now better and more substantial 
than any in the United States, or perhaps in England or 
France. A part of a bridge is yet standing over the Dan-, 
ube, which was built soon after the time of the Caesars. 
What a people must they have been to leave such vestiges 
behind them ! Why, if this country should be overrun by 
savages, as others have been, what have we that would re- 
main one thousand years to tell that such a race as ours ever 
existed? But Rome is only a small part: Greece, Persia, 
Egypt and Assyria, all come in for their portion of reflec- 
tion. What design and architectural skill must it have re- 
quired to erect such lasting monuments ! And the philos- 
ophy of Cato, Cicero, Caesar, Seneca, Tacitus, Xenophon, 
Solon, Plato, Socrates and Solomon, has never been ex- 
celled. I should not have omitted Aristotle. I have said 
nothing of their generals. The whole subject presents a 
wide field, and, if properly treated, might make an inter- 
esting topic ; but I can only now suggest, and must con- 
clude by saying that I believe the people in those days 
were literally giants to what they are now. 

I write in great haste, and do not know whether you will 

be able to read all or not Write often, and 

with more pains. Try to improve your hand-writing. 

Those who have seen the hand-writing of Mr. A. H. 
Stephens will smile at the last injunction. Then, as now, 
it was a task to the unpracticed eye to decipher his manu- 
script. It has, however, the merit of uniformity — uniformly 

illegible. 

[ From same to same. ] 

Crawfordville, June 2, 1842. 
Dear Brother — Your letter of the 27th ultimo was re- 
ceived this morning. I was absent yesterday and the day 
before, at Warrenton, attending the trial of a negro, charged 



38 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

with the offense of assault and battery, with intent to mur- 
der, on a white man. I defended him, and he was ac- 
quitted. But what I meant, in commencing, was to say 
that, in consequence of the absence, your letter was not 
received until it had been here nearly two days. In refer- 
ence to your speaking at commencement, I can only say 
that you must not suffer yourself to vacillate one moment 
between speaking and getting yourself excused. You must 
speak — that is, if you are chosen (and, by-the-by, you did 
not state whether this was the case or not) — and you better 
set right out in good earnest to writing. There is nothing 
that a student is more apt to do than to postpone the duty 
of composition, and no intellectual habit is more injurious 
when one such is once acquired. The mind should be ac- 
tive and industrious, and never be suffered to grow slothful 
and indolent ; and it is much easier in one's business to keep 
ahead of time than it is to keep anything like up ivitJi its 
rapid march when once thrown ever so little in the rear. 
You will lose nothing by having your speech well com- 
mitted, even a month before commencement, and it should 
be a rule of your life, established now, in this your first ap- 
pearance before the public, neiKTio appear unless you appeal- 
tvell, and also ahvays to appear \wh.enewQY you can. "The 
kingdom of heaven sufifereth violence," saith the Scripture, 
"and the violent take it by force. " So it is with the world. 
The most resolute and inflexible bear off the palms and 
crowns in both. A man's character, standing, reputa- 
tion, fame and distinction, are the works of his own 
hands, and the industrious, active, vigilant and energetic, 
build to themselves great names ; while the lazy, careless 
and indolent live but to die, and, without hope or care ever 
to be known hereafter, permit the meed of fame to be 
seized by the more eager and violent, and, in their own ob- 
scured littleness, soon pass away in one general, common 
oblivion. Let not this be the character of your ambition ; 
but in contests for honorable distinction, ever be found 
amongst the first of the foremost. '' Nihil arduiini est ipse 
volentibus, sed, nihil potest fieri illis invitis." In the selec- 
tion of a subject for an oration, or an address, upon any 
occasion, you should pursue the rules laid down in Blair; 
and, in the first place, make choice of one suited to the oc- 
casion, the time, the audience, etc. ; and, in the second 
place, such a one as will allow as much of method as pos- 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 39 

sible in its treatment — that is, which will require styles and 
manner of speaking in its different parts or branches, such 
as the negative, descriptive, argumentative, and, as Blair 
has it, the pathetic or sublime. Every discourse should 
have some part devoted exclusively to the excitement oi 
the passions and emotions. This is the work of fancy and 
the imagination, and the subject chosen should furnish the 
material for the occasional flights or colorings. The error 
of most young men is trying to make their orations abound 
with eloquence, and nothing else, and hence, high-sound- 
ing words and animated descriptions from beginning to end. 
The consequence is, in trying to be eloquent in everything, 
they are eloquent in nothing. I can hardly, at this time, 
suggest any subject to you ; I am in too great haste. 
"Time" is a good subject; the measure of existence — its 
origin, or its eternity — its history — the creation and destruc- 
tion of worlds other than this — the changes or revolutions 
it has traced on earth — its passing events, destinies, dura- 
tion, etc.: thoughts growing out of all these views might 
be presented in an interesting garb. The greatest objec- 
tion to it is that it savors too much of the "all eloquent" 

order 

In my travels this Spring, I have in different sections 
found the woods alive with the singing locusts ; they were 
in some parts of Wilkes and Lincoln, and throughout the 
western counties from Morgan, millions of millions. It is 

said they appear every fourteen years 

Affectionately, A. H. S. 

[ From same to same. ] 

Crawfordville, June 5, 1842. 

Dear Brother — In reference to the 

riot, I did not exactly understand from your letter whether 
John Bird was amongst those on the evening of the dis- 
turbance of the temperance lecture, who fired the pistol, 
and went back in pursuit of the officers, etc., or whether 
he barely left the church at the same time with others who 
went into the excesses. I should be utterly astonished to 
learn that he was in company with and countenancing men 
engaged in acts and proceedings so utterly disgraceful. 
But more on this subject, in reference to him, I will not say 



40 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

to you. I will write him a letter. It seems strange to me 
to think in what way the vision will become warped some- 
times in its observation of men and things, and how, from 
familiar association, or some other cause, conduct the most 
improper, ungentlemanly, disreputable, and even base and 
criminal, ean be looked upon as common-place, and very 
little out of the way. Now, I would not have a student to 
denounce, or even make mention of the conduct of a fellow- 
student, however low and contemptible it might be ; for 
it is none of his business; it is even dishonorable to do 
it; but, at the same time, from the very bottom of his 
soul should he loathe and detest a mean deed, or anything 
that savors of disreputable or dishonorable conduct. A 
man of correct principles moves on in his own sphere, and 
permits others to take the same course ; and while his leads 
to elevation and refinement, he lets them (pursuing theirs) 
wallow in the dirt and mire if they choose. It is true, that 
philanthropy will dictate and urge him to relieve all the 
misery he can, and by example, persuasion and advice, 
(when it can be properly given) to prevent as much suffer- 
ing, and misery, and degradation, as possible; but never 
will such a man be brought to bend and stoop to infamy. 
It is certainly a difficult matter, since so few people accom- 
plish it, to pursue the even tenor of one's way in this life, 
commingling with men amidst all their vanities, and contra- 
dictions, and excesses, and improprieties in conduct and 
character, without giving improper offense to any, and se- 
curing the esteem of all, and, at the same time, to maintain 
stern, fixed and inflexible principles of honor and integrity; 
and yet, it is not only possiple, but easy ; and in this con- 
sists not only the secret of life, but the first principles of 
politeness and gentility, and the very soul of benevolence 
and philanthropy. A man should study it. It is the lever 
by which the moral world is raised. Some men have no 
talent for this thing. Indeed, most have not ; and hence, 
you see them arrayed class against class, each hating the 
other with a moral enmity. One is guilty of some impro- 
priety; the more righteous, in his own estimation, cuts 
his acquaintance — denounces him — and would as soon be 
caught with a leper as found in his company; now, this is 
wrong and foolish. No man is so bad that he has no good 
qualities, and even from the thistle, tansy and rue, and 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 4I 

hoar-hound, honey is extracted: so, even from the worst 
man, some good thing can be drawn out ; but the diffi- 
cuky hes in the difference between being set against a man 
and his improper act, and necessarily denouncing or cen- 
suring any one guilty of such an act. It is the difference 
between being utterly adverse to becoming a leper and a 
disposition to kick any one who is so unfortunate as to be 
one. Now, I hold that a man might almost sooner die than 
be a leper; and yet, be so far from injuring one that is as 
that he would do all in his power to relieve, assist and com- 
fort the sufferer ; and so with morals and intercourse with 
mankind. A man may, from his very soul, abhor a princi- 
ple, and sooner die than possess it, or encourage, or coun- 
tenance it in others, and yet, treat with civility and kind- 
ness the most miserable and wretched victims of its devel- 
opment. Now, that you may understand me fully upon 
this subject, I would remark, that when I speak of the 
" disgraceful conduct" of those engaged in the riot, I speak 
of it as I would of a "loathsome leper" — not that I 
would shun, or scorn, or condemn, or because 1 think my- 
self better, but because it is a most disagreeable and fatal 
malady; and as I would be kind and urbane to the bodily 
sufferer, so I would, in the other instance, to him whom I 
should consider as destitute of principle more necessary 
for honorable action, than all that is lost in the life is nec- 
essary for good and vigorous health. I should be kind and 
agreeable, and associate with such companions — or, in other 
words, be not distant, or morose, or Pharisaical ; and 
while I would pass the individuals themselves this way, and 
without the slightest duplicity, I would have the most per- 
fect contempt and detestation of the principles that could 
induce any one to be guilty of such conduct. This is what 
I hold to be regard for one's character — stern and inflexible 
honor. Now, what could a set of young men imagine more 
disgraceful to themselves than whooping and hallooing in 
the streets of a town like a set of savages in a forest? What 
is there more unbecoming and ungentlemanly? Particu- 
larly in those who are reaping the advantages of the best 
school in the country — to improve their minds as well as 
morals — and to make themselves better, or better qualified 
for business in life, than the great mass of their contempo- 
raries ? Young men, whose ambition it should be to be- 



42 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

come the exemplars for their fellows, and for future men to 
follow? And then, as for blowing horns, getting drunk in 
the square, or old field, and throwing rocks at the vener- 
able preceptor, to whom they are paying so much to be 
taught, besides the loss of their time, etc., how utterly 
little and low, and beneath a man whose mind is as great as 
a mustard-seed ! Worse conduct could not be expected 
from a set of negroes — as mean, I never knew any of these 
guilty of; and shall a young gentleman, a collegian, have no 
better principles instilled into him than those by which the 
'meanest of slaves are actuated? Is this the effect of ed- 
ucation — this the refinement of the schools — this the 
perfection of intellectual training — this the end for which 
so much time is lost and money spent? Oh, shame! that 
boys are not better taught — that they have no better minds 
to think and reason with themselves, and see the gross im- 
propriety of such conduct! "But it needs not thought or 
reason : it seems to me that brute instinct would almost be 
sufficient to restrain them from such conduct. But the 
whole, I suSpect, is excused on the ground of the insult — 
the threat of the citizens to prosecute if certain impro- 
prieties were repeated. This was a kind of censure of pre- 
vious conduct that could not be borne, and hence the row. 
Well, all that is just of the same character. The first dis- 
order was either censurable, or not. If censurable, of course 
a repetition, with great excesses, was no way to make the 
proper amende. If they were not censurable — if they had 
behaved like honorable gentlemen — it was certainly a very 
bad way of proving it by perpetrating such very dishonor- 
able acts. If the first disturbance was from momentary 
feeling, and without any intentional or concerted disorder, 
after it was known that their conduct was misconstrued, 
they should rather have felt mortified at so dishonorable an 
action being imputed to them, and their endeavor should 
have been to show that it was wrong, and this should have 
been done by their exemplary and good conduct. That is 
the way to purge a man's self from a charge of dishonor. 
But I think this narration has also run out far enough. . . 

The preceding letter was evoked by a memorable disturb- 
ance which occurred between some of the citizens of Ath- 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 43 

ens and a portion of the Faculty on the one side, and a 
portion of the students of the college on the other. It 
threatened for a while to become quite serious, and was a 
matter of painful concern to the friends of the institution 
throughout the State. As usual in like cases, neither party- 
was wholly right nor wholly wrong. Young Stephens at- 
tached himself with neither: he maintained the interests of 
law and good order, and contributed largely, by example 
and counsel, to restore the peace. 

[ From same to same. ] 

Crawfordville, August 7, 1842. 

Your circulars have not come to 

hand yet; when you find out, I wish to know who got bet- 
ter, or as good circulars as you. Let me know this with- 
out fail. I will send you the books by the first opportu- 
nity. You must continue to apply yourself labo7'ioiisly. 
You have but one step now to take to place you in the 
world amongst men, and yoii have much to learn yet to fit 
you for that place. Pay strict attention to your writing, 
and learn within the next twelve months, if you live, to 
write a good hand. You will never have time or chance to 
form your hand after that. Tell John to pay more atten- 
tion to his writing. He had better write from a copy every 
day. Remember me to Dr. Church, and Professors Hull 
and Waddell, and tell them I stood the travel very well, ex- 
cept the heat, which was oppressive for a short time. 

[From same to same. ] 

Crawfordville, August 16, 1842. 

I am up to-day. Sunday I was confined to my room in 
consequence of a blister. I stay at home, however, and 
attend to no business, except writing letters, and giving or 
joining in some consultation about the business of the office. 
I will keep you advised of my situation, and I want you, by 
all means, not to permit yourself to grow or become uneasy. 
I don't feel so myself, and do not want anybody to feel so 
on my account. Life and death, and everything, should be 



44 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

considered and regarded philosophically. We have all got 
to die. The end of all of us will come in due season. 

Then, why should we suffer any uneasiness 

from any indication of the immediate approach of death, 
when we know it must come in due season? Philosophy 
teaches us to be looking forward to this event throughout 
life, and to direct all of our pursuits and pleasures in refer- 
ence to this ultimate end. This consummation of earthly 
existence, and with life thus spent, to die is but to take a 
journey. Those who are left behind will soon follow, and 
in reference to my particular friends and relations, I hardly 
know whether it would be more agreeable to me to take 
my turn in advance, or to go after. Be, therefore, not dis- 
turbed, because, in the first place, I think there is no imme- 
diate cause for it, and perhaps none will occur ; and, sec- 
ondly, it is wrong in principle. 



[From same to same.] 

Crawfordville, January 21, 1843. 

It is a general feeling in most of our writers to pay too 
little attention to style — to the selection and arrangement 
of their words, and the structure of their sentences. And 
it is a failing the more considerable, because it can be so 
easily avoided. It would require only a little more labor, 
and perhaps at first, or in the formation and acquisition of 
style, a little more time. But what are these when com- 
pared with the additional beauty and usefulness of their 
compositions, imparted by such a finishing touch. The 
application or moral (as the preachers say) of this episode 
is, that you should pay great attention to your composition, 
and learn to write, as you would move or walk, neither 
clumsily, lazily, nor awkwardly, but with ease, grace and 
elegance 



[ From same to same. ] 

Crawfordville, June 14, 1843. 
Dear Brother — Your two letters of the loth, and the 
other of the 12th instant, were both received by me this 
morning, and I send you an answer noiv, as I shall have no 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 45 

other opportunity of doing so before my return from Mil- 
ledgeville, for I expect to start there to-morrow. My ob- 
ject in going down so early is to attend to the granting of 
some lands for a number of friends before the meeting of 
the convention, as I fear there will be too great a press of 
that kind of business in the offices, after the general assem- 
blage of that body, to have it attended to with order and 
promptness. I shall be absent some six or seven days. 
This, therefore, in all probability, will be the last letter I 
shall write to you until after your final examination, and 
your college course — at least, so far as its studies are con- 
cerned — will have been brought to a close. The occasion, 
I need not add, to me, is one not without its interests, and 
the associations which the reflection awakens fail not to en- 
hance that interest. It seems like a short time since the 
memorable night I bade you and John adieu, as you took 
your leave to enter upon that adventurous scene from which 
you are now about to so shortly return. To me the term 
of four years in prospect then seemed long — and no doubt 
much longer to you — but now they are passed ; the whole 
is as quickly counted as the incidents of yesterday — that is, 
if Vv"e consult our conciousness only of their transit ; but 
if we reflect and consider awhile, and look about at the 
great changes effected around us and in us, our thoughts 
and actions, and in the relations of individuals, families, 
communities, and the country at large, or even in the sur- 
face of the earth itself, the period magnifies, the field of 
contemplation enlarges, and it seems strange that so much 
could have been wrought in so short a time. You were 
then young, inexperienced, fatherless, motherless, and 
almost friendless. Well do I recollect with what solicitude 
and intensity of feeling, known only to myself, I fitted you 
out for your departure for college, and then, when all things 
were ready, the hour arrived, and the last words were 
spoken, and, in a few moments, when the whirling car 
rushed recklessly on in the darkness, and I returned lonely 
to my room ; how I committed you and your fortunes into 
the hands of that kind and mysterious Providence, who 
governs the hearts of men and rules the destiny of nations — 
hardly permitting myself at that time, owing to great fee- 
bleness of health, to indulge the hope of ever living to see 
the time of your graduation. But now your course is 



46 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

nearly ended, and that period has almost arrived. In a few 
short weeks, if you should live, your academic education 
will be finished, and you must take your stand among men. 
Have you ever seriously considered, and fully realized in 
thought, how near you are to so important a crisis in life ? 
If not, it is time the subject, with all its gravity and re- 
sponsibility, was kept constantly in view. Would that I 
had time and space to present it in its various shapes. The 
past has been pleasant: the future is active. You have 
been agreeably entertained in looking on the world at a dis- 
tance, and as a stranger, a disinterested person, philosophiz- 
ing, perhaps, upon its various characters, its pursuits, its 
inconsistencies, its passions, strifes, struggles, and teach- 
ings ; but your position is now to be changed, and all these 
have to be encountered. Some liken a college-life, which 
you are just finishing, to the world in miniature, and the 
illustration is not without some aptness; but it is the min- 
iature of the smooth sailing upon the unruffled surface of 
the broad river, or the still, widening bay just before it 
issues from its restricted channel, and the protecting em- 
brace of its contiguous banks and lofty capes, into the wide 
expanse of waters just ahead, compared with the breasting 
and weathering the heaving waves and surging billows that 
ever heave, and roll, and surge on the ocean's bosom. 
Life's passage is over a tempestuous sea, and well-con- 
structed, well-manned, and well-piloted is the gallant barque 
that safely makes the voyage. Many spread their sails 
joyously to the courting breeze, but few reach the wished- 
for haven. Be not inattentive, then, at the present mo- 
ment. It is an important period of your life. You never 
did, and never will stand in more need of cool thought. 
sober reflection, and good judgment, than at present. Let 
no passion get the sway or control of your feelings. Life 
is just before you, and the part you act in it has now to be 
chosen, and the character you wish to sustain is to be 
formed 

[ From same to same. ] 

Crawfordville, July 2, 1843. 

Dear Brother — Your letter by John Bird was duly re- 
ceived, and I should have answered it before now, but for 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 47 

my absence, first to Washington and then to Augusta. I 
was indeed gratified to learn that you had received thej^r.sY 
hofior in your class — not that I attach the least importance 
to the mere show or eclat of such a distinction — on the con- 
trary, there are great evils attending it — but gratified to 
have this evidence, that you had not misspent your time, 
and that during the four years of your absence, you had 
not been unmindful of the first of all duties — your duty to 
yourself in the cultivation of your mind and your morals, 
and in fitting yourself for usefulness in those scenes of life 
upon which you are now about so soon to enter. With 
these reflections, I hope you will look upon your distinc- 
tion with the same views as I do. In rendering yourself 
worthy of it, you have but done what you ought to have 
done, and deserve the same commendation due to all peo- 
ple who pursue a similar course of conduct, and nothing 
more. From a want of a correct way of viewing such 
things, many young men, who otherwise, doubtless, would 
have succeeded well in life, have been utterly ruined by 
being the favored subjects upon whom such distinctions 
have been bestowed. Their judgments are not good. The 

nature of true honor by them is not understood 

I say that cool and collected forethought, which dwells 
upon all these things in such persons, is entirely wanting. 
I need hardly add, therefore, that you should by no means 
suffer yourself to grow the least inflated ; and if such feel- 
ings at any time rise, you have nothing to do to repress 
them but to look to the future. Your work has just begun. 
The first step has just been reached ; the whole mountain 

of life has yet to be ascended 

Idleness is the sure path — yea, the highway — to ruin, and 
bad associations and companions grow around and over- 
power one as imperceptibly, and as irresistibly, as the glow 
and full force of passion itself I think it possible I may 
be in Athens during the coming or ensuing week ; in the 
meantime, write me immediately on the reception of this; 
or you may wait until after the show of the Fourth is over, 
and let me know how it passed off, and on what subject 

you intend to write your commencement speech 

I have never read Gibbon regularly through — for want of 
time only. I have found it necessary to consult him upon 
particularly points, and have been pleased with him as an 



48 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

author. His style is good, though labored. He had great 
bitterness of feeling towards the religionists of his day, 
which shows itself very prominently in several parts of his 
writings. Affectionately, A. H. S. 

In December, 1843, Linton Stephens visited Washington 
City, and spent the winter there with his brother, Hon. A. 
H. Stephens, who was then in Congress. He watched, with 
interest and instruction, the proceedings of the Congress and 
of the Supreme Court, and formed acquaintance with many 
of the illustrious of the land. It may be questioned whether 
any period of his life, of equal duration, was more privi- 
leged or more profitably spent. In 1 844, he began the study 
of the law under the tuition of Robert Toombs, Esq., at 
Washington, Georgia. Mr. Toombs had then scarcely 
passed his third decade ; but he stood at the head of the 
profession in the State, both as a jurist and an advocate. 
Linton remained there, prosecuting his legal studies, with 
occasional interruptions, nearly a year. In December, 
1844, he was entered as a student of the Law-school 
of the University of Virginia. That department of the 
University had been in high celebrity, under the su- 
pervision of the late Henry St. George Tucker. At first. 
Judge Tucker does not seem to have impressed young 
Stephens very favorably, either as an able and profound 
lawyer, or as a person of uncommon preceptorial gifts; 
nor was he slow or stint in expressing his disappointment — 
dissatisfaction — almost disgust. Longer observation and 
better acquaintance, however, seemed to greatly modify, 
if not entirely eradicate, his earlier unfavorable impressions 
of Judge Tucker's juridical ability and attainments, and of 
his fitness for the office of instruction. 

Anterior to his matriculation, the Presidential campaign 
of 1844 transpired. The following letters 'may not be un- 
interesting to the reader who can recall the high party ex- 
citement of that day : 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 49 

[From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

House of Representatives, May 4, 1844. 

Dear Brother — I barely have time to say to you that I 
am well, and that I am in receipt of yours, acknowledging 
the reception of my two letters, that seem to have met 
with some extraordinary delay in their passage. I was 
glad to hear from, and to know that you were well. I got 
back from Baltimore yesterday. Berrien, Dawson, T. B. 
King. General Clinch, Colonel Joseph H. Lumpkin, Colo- 
nel Sayre, Colonel Joshua Hill, Toombs, Harris ( a young 
man of Elbert) and myself were the Georgia delegation in 
the nomination. Chappel! was chosen to fill Kenan's va- 
cancy, but declined to act. An immense concourse of peo- 
ple were assembled on the second, the day of the conven- 
tion for ratification. The like was never before seen in this 
country. The Harrison ratification convention, in the same 
place, in 4840, was not to be compared to it; nor the great 
gathering at Bunker Hill last summer, as I am assured by 
tho.se who witnessed each of them. It is impossible to 
give any adequate or correct estimate of the number pres- 
ent; the nearest approximation to truth, I think, is to say 
that there was "a great multitude that no man could num- 
ber;" not less than thirty thousand, I think, were in the 
procession, and they were not missed from the crow d when 
they left. They were not a drop in the bucket, and the 
best reflection is, that but. one feeling, one spirit, and one 
hope, animated and actuated every breast in the "count- 
less thousands." You will learn before you get this that 
Clay and Frelinghuyscn were nominated for President and 
Vice-President, etc. . . . The debate on the tariff is 
still going on in the House. Cobb and Chappell, of our 
State, have spoken ; none of the rest yet. Not much said 
now about Texas. The treaty will get but few votes in the 
Senate. I have no time to say more. I must tell you, 
however, a good anecdote on our friend Cobb. You know 
"Mr. McFadden " is a pet-name with him, which he has 
made famous, and you know that hack-drivers always know 
everybody in town — that is, ask them if they will drive you to 
such or such a place, they always say, " Yes — yes, sir," etc. 
Well, Cobb, in the usual v/ay, walked up to a company of 
hack-drivers, asked them if any of them could drive him 

5* 



50 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

to Mr. McFadden's. All sang out, "Yes, sir — yes, sir;" 
and Cobb hopped into one of them — the finest one — and' 
was soon closed in, and off rolled the hack. After a while, 
the hackman asked, " Where was it you wanted to go to?" 
Answered Cobb, "To Mr. McFadden's." "What street 
does he live on?" asked the hackman. " I don't know,'' 
said Cobb; "you told me you could carry me there, and 
you vmst.'' So round about town he got a good ride, look- 
ing out for Mr. McFadden's 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Washington, Ga., May ii, 1844. 
Dear Brother — I was truly rejoiced to get a letter from 
you yesterday morning; it was like a green spot in a des- 
ert. But I find again that my long failure to hear from 
you has been owing more to the mails than to you ; (your 
letter was dated fourth instant), so hereafter, whenever I 
get in a dearth of letters, I will not complain, bjjt suffer 
in silence. I have read several descriptions of the Balti- 
more Convention. I suppose it was a grand .show. But 
neither you nor the papers have said anything about any 
speech of yourself or Toombs. Mrs. Toombs has written 
home that the latter made a speech at Baltimore — at what 
time I didn't hear. The people here expected to hear 
from both of you. I didn't regard it as certain, but thought 
it probable, that you would give the crowd a specimen of 
Georgia eloquence. But in that immense multitude, I 
suppose you were a small fish, and remained unseen. Reese 
is very extravagant in praise of Webster's speech. It was 
undoubtedly a good confession of faith ; but the sketch in 
the papers doesn't show it to have been anything else. 
The prodigal has returned, and of course the fatted calf 
must be slain. Already they begin to call it his great 
speech. I have no time to write more. It is nearly twelve 
o'clock, and as I am going home this evening, I must be- 
gin to make a little preparation. I go up to see that all 
your law books are carefully started to brother John. He 
has written that you had consented to let him have them, 
and I go, at his request, to pack them up and send them to 
Madison, whence they will be carried by wagon. So no 
more at present. 

Yours, affectionately, Linton Stephens. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 5 I 

P. S. — Your account of Cobb's trick upon the hackman, 
I read in Vickers' piazza, to the great amusement of the 
crowd. 

The allusion to Mr. Webster as "The Prodigal" was 
perhaps generated of the fact that he remained in Mr. 
Tyler's Cabinet after his defection from the party that 
elected him to the Vice- Presidency ; the great body of the 
Whigs condemned Mr. Webster's conduct at the time ; 
now there is but one opinion as to the propriety and pa- 
triotism of his course. 

[From A. II. S. to L. S. ] 

Washington, D. C, May 14, 1844. 

Dear Brother — I wrote you a letter yesterday and dated 
it the fourteenth, as I did all my other letters of the same 
day, which I suppose only shows that I am beginning to liv^e 
too fast in this city of "Treaties." Yours of the eleventh 
instant has just come to hand, and I now send you a few 
lines by way of acknowledgment for it, if the mail will 
ever be so kind or safe as to carry it — or I cannot under- 
stand how it is that you hear so seldom from me. I write 
sometimes every day, and at no time omit to write more 
than three or four days at a spell. There must be some- 
thing wrong somewhere. I wrote you yesterday that Van 
Buren stock was a little on the rise, and I think the tendency 
this morning is still upwards. Cass' letter has been re- 
ceived, and it is not satisfaetory ; but this, I believe, I men- 
tioned yesterday. His revised opinion has not yet come to 
hand — so says piivate minor. And I "guess" it is true. 
There is now some disposition amongst the Southern Demo- 
crats to take up Tyler. But he cannot get the nomination of 
the convention. I have not heard from Toombs lately. I 
expect him back here in a day or two. The last I heard 
of him, he was speaking at Newark, where he gained 
many laurels for himself, and much distinction for his State. 
Lumpkin and Dawson, were also with him, but he seemed 
to outshine the whole grand constellation in that exhibition. 
My health is as good as usual. The House has been en- 
gaged all this Week in the business relating to this District, 



52 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

But nothing has yet been done of any importance — not even 
the passage of the bill to pave the avenue to prevent the 
accumulation of dust, etc. The Senate sometime ago 
passed a resolution to adjourn on the twenty-seventh in- 
stant. Yesterday, we amended that resolution by fixing it 
on the seventeenth proximo. To-day, that body laid the 
whole matter on the table. It is now thought that we will 
not get away before July. But I expect the Baltimore do- 
ings, to come off Monday week, will render the time of the 
adjournment less doubtful than it now is. The Democrats 
do not intend to quit here until they see some prospect of 
land ahead, even though it should be some of the points of 
Texas 

[ From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Washington, Ga. , June i, 1844. 

Dear Brother — -Yesterday morning, I received your let- 
ter of the twenty-sixth ultimo, together with the scraps of 
poetry, and the sketches of Adams and Choate from the 
ladies' gallery. As you said nothing further of your health, 
I inferred you were in a measure restored. The poetry was 
very good. The photographic sketches were, I suppose,* 
the work of your friend Edwards — at least, they are just 
such as I would expect him to perpetrate. The account of 
your speech on the back of the sketches, I had seen be- 
fore in the papers, and I am now getting very anxious to 
see the speech itself. There is nothing new here, except 
the prospect of fair weather — or I might almost say fair 
itself — and also that Vickers, the hotel-keeper at Wash- 
ington, in favor of somebody, or some event or other, 
has made a deviation from his custom and killed a pig 
on Tuesday instead of Saturday. Whether the prema- 
ture fall of that one, however, shall inure to the benefit 
of his brethren, and save the accustomed victim this 
evening, remains yet to be seen. The best, however, is to 
be hoped for. We have got no news here yet from the 
Baltimore Convention. Democratic news don't move like 
that of the Whigs. The zeal is wanting to disseminate it. 
Judge Andrews, his brother, the doctor, and Captain Brown 
are Texas men. They, however, with a few Democrats, 
whom probably you do not know, (the Moons for instance,) 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 53 

form the only exceptions to a determined opposition to 
Texas in this place. I forgot to tell you that Tom Sim- 
mons is a Tylcr-Tcxas man, and that Bob Burch is for im- 
mediate annexation, ' ' in spite of h — 1. " His zeal for Clay, 
however, is unabated. Dr. Alfriend, too, was flying away 
on Texas, but Clay's letter clipped his wings, and has re- 
stored him to the earth and to his senses again. His diffi- 
culty arose from the necessity of giving an opinion before he 
knew the position of his party. Many, no doubt, would 
have obtained a similar relief — or rather have avoided the 
difficulty already, from an earlier publication of their 
leader's sentiments. The Whigs about Crawfordville were 
not really disposed to attach any importance to the Texas 
question, and were inclined to regard it as a humbug; but 
some of them, through fear of seeming to wait for an opin- 
ion, prematurely betrayed themselves into a false position. 
Old Parson Wilson is a most determined opponent of the 
Texas clique, and is actually on the point of falling out 
with Mr. Calhoun 

The following letter, describing a diplomatic dinner at 
Washington a quarter of a century ago, derives additional 
interest from the distinguished characters of the persons 
present, as well as the well-known tastes of the writer: 

[From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

Washington, D. C, June ii, 1844. 

Dear Brother — It is twelve o'clock at night, and I have 
just got home from the first "diplomatic dinner" I have 
. attended during the session — or I may say, I ever attended ; 
and as I do not feel disposed to sleep, I have thought I 
would give you hastily a "sketch of the scene," as I know 
I shall not have the time to-morrow. The dinner was given 
by Messrs. Archer and Berrien, who have moved to the hill, 
and have quarters just on the opposite side of the public 
grounds from where I am situated. A. and B., you know, 
are "sort of chums" and live together. Mrs. B. has been 
here since April. That you may know the particulars in full, 
I enclose my invitation card, that you may "begin at the 
beginning, " as Benton said in his speech upon Texas. The 



54 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

hour, you perceive, was half-past six o'clock. I was there 
to the minute — not one minute too soon or too late. I 
found Mr. Barrow, Senator from Louisiana, and the Bel- 
gian Charge, the only company assembled. But in a few 
minutes, all the guests were present, to wit : The Brit- 
ish Minister, the French Minister, the Belgian Charge, and 
Mr. Thompson, our late Minister to Mexico, Mr. Barrow 
of the Senate, and Mr. J. R. Ingersoll, Daniel D. Barnard, 
R. C. Winthrop, Hamilton Fish, Gales, and Seaton, Fvans 
of Maine, Mangum of North Carolina, the J^razilian Charge 
and myself. Mr. A. sat at one end of the table and 
Mr. B. at the other. Mrs. B. (the only lady present) 
sat in the middle of the table with the French Minister 
on her right, and the British Minister on her left, and 

M directly opposite, between the Charges from 

Brazil and Belgium. 1 sat on M 's right, and Fvans 

to me on the right, and Ingersoll fronting me, with Bar- 
nard on his left, while Thompson and Gales filled up 
the line on towards Barrow's right, and Winthrop, Sea- 
ton and Fish on the other side, on the left. We were 
seated at the table in about fifteen minutes of the ap- 
pointed time for dinner; that is quarter to seven. The 
table was decorated with flowers, etc. , and filled with glass, 
but nothing eatable was to be seen, except some jellies and 
strawberries. Everything was handed round by servants. 
First soup — then fish, then beef, then something else, I 
know not what; then sweet-breads, then chicken, then birds, 
then beans and asparagus, then strawberries, then Charlotte 
de Russe, with jellies, then ice cream, then cherries and 
apples. A change of plates took place at each of these 
courses — six wine-glasses were placed near each plate, and 
in them we first had Sherry, immediately after soup, then 
Madeira, Claret, Champagne, Brandy, etc., with Hock, and 
just what each wanted at all times. I forgot to mention 
Henderson, the late Texas Plenipotentiary, as one of the 
company ; and I forgot to say also that the last course was 
a snuff-box handed all around. The candles were lighted as 
dark came on, and we left the table at half-past ten, and 
repaired to the drawing-room, where coffee was served in 
the handing order. The whole passed off very well, and 
nobody got drunk. The whole company was jovial and the 
conversation spirited. All sorts of subjects were talked 



JUDGE L^JTON STEPHENS. 55 

about, and I was much pleased with Mangum. The servants 
who handed meats, etc. , were called ivaiters ; those who 
served wine were called butlers. They were all colored but 
one, who was a French cook, who figured largely, and all 
wore silk gloves and had on aprons. Packenham was de- 
cidedly the best-looking man in the crowd. He is a man oi 
fine countenance and manly form — does not look to be over 
thirty-five or forty — wore a white vest with upright collar, 
dark coat with shining metal buttons. The French Min- 
ister, whose name I do not know how to spell, is a pleasant 
fellow. The Brazilian Charge is small, dark and sprif:;Jitly — 
tries to show off like a fiee in company. The Belgian 
Charge is an angular-looking, sober-minded man of reflec- 
tion and practical life; he is, I should think, fifty. As for 

H , he went from North Carolina, and is about like five 

hundred other men you might see on Tar River anywhere. 
Mrs. B. is a good-looking woman, affects nothing extra; 
she seemed to entertain the two ministers about her very 
well. But I can say no more ; and this I have said to you, 
only to write for a few moments before going to bed. I 
will state this, however, which surprised me: When I was 
here in 1838, General Thompson was then a member of 
Congress from South Carolina, and I was introduced to him, 
etc., and immediately on coming in the room, he came up 
and recognized me. I had not seen him since 1838. He 
is a thorough anti-annexation man, and has promised me to 
beat the mass-meeting in Madison on the 31st of July. 
Tell Cotting of this; I mean tell him that Thompson, late 

Minister to Mexico, will be there I 

don't write such stuff as this for anybody but yourself 



From Charlottesville, Virginia, Linton writes to his bro- 
ther, in December, 1844: 

[From L. S. to A. li. S. ] 

Dear Brother — After we parted, the Charlottesville 
train waited at the "Junction" until the arrival of the 
Southern train, and then went on without accident to Gor- 
donsville. We arrived there about two o'clock, and got a 
dinner which fully realized my ideal of Virginian cooking. 



56 BIOGRAPHICAL SK^CH OF 

When I left the dinner-house, I felt a good deal like I was 
leaving home — the house was so warm and cheerful, the 
landlady so neat and accommodating; but, above all, they 
fed me so well that I felt a very lively regret at leaving; 
(a dog will take up where he is well fed.) From Gordons- 
ville, the conveyance was by stage, over a road which, for 
the difficulty of traveling it, can't be equaled by any I have 
ever seen. It was bad — not from want of attention, but 
from the face of the country and the character of the soil, 
which in wet weather becomes muddy and lets a wheel sink 
very deep. Upon getting into the stage, the first question 
of a passenger, who afterwards proved to be very well ac- 
quainted with the country, was, if the road was deep — and 
deep it proved to be. The stage arrived here about eight 
o'clock. The Montreal man — who, you may remember, 
stood outside of the car, and said he was going to Char- 
lottesville — proved to be quite a genius in his way. He had 
no humor, and, I think, not the slightest ambition to raise 
a laugh ; and yet, to laugh was almost the natural conse- 
quence of his opening his lips. There was an indescrib- 
able oddity about him that made you laugh without being 
able to tell why. Montreal is his home now ; but he went 
from this State thither, and when he got to this place, and 
stood about the bar sometime, one of the waiters recog- 
nized him, and went up to him and called him Mars, (some- 
thing that I did not understand.) He shook the negro by 
the hand and said, "Why, how do you do, Jim? D — n 
it! I'm glad to see you ! " He then went on talking to Jim 
with as much zest as you would if you were to meet Ben 
or Bob in Egypt, or as I would if I were to see one of them 
Jiere nozv. The last of the conversation I heard was an in- 
quiry from Jim about " Mars John, away yonder! " 

The first thing I did this morning, after breakfast, was to 
walk out about a mile to the university, and present myself 
to Judge Tucker. About his third remark to me was 
the question, "Have you ever seen my Conmicntaries?''' 
I learned from him that he had two classes of law- 
students. Juniors and Seniors. The Juniors are now on the 
subject of "Things Real," in Blackstone, and the Seniors 
on the subject of "Personalty," in the same book. The 
Juniors, he says, will graduate in two years, and the Sen- 
iors in one. He says if I will join the Seniors, and will be 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 57 

diligent, and should prove intelligent, I can graduate at the 
same time — that is, the fourth of July next. Then, after 
making a few remarks about the advantages which he 
"could but flatter himself" (was the expression) "were to 
be derived from his Couiuientarics,'' he told me the proctor 
would give me all necessary information. I thereupon quit 
him and went to see the proctor. I learned from him that 
I would have to pay $70.00 professor's fee, ;^ 15.00 for the 
use of public rooms, deposit ;^io,oo as a contingent fund 
to meet my share of damages, etc. , (the surplus, if any, to 
be returned at the end of session,) and if I was twenty-one 
\ears old, I could have my choice of boarding in or out of 
the college. The price of board in the college hotels (of 
which there are two or three in the campus) is $110.00 for 
the session, and you will have to pay $16.00 rent for dormi- 
tory. I am told by Hunt, of Wilkes county, whom I found 
here, and is an old acquaintance, that board in town can be 
had for about the same cost. Board, in and out of college, 
must be paid quarterh% in advance. All these sums have 
to be paid before I can enter; so if (I tell you I don't like 
the appearances) you want me to enter, you can tell how 
much money I will need. I now have I78.93. No more 
room and dark. Yours, affectionately, 

Linton Stephens. 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

University OF Virginia, December, 1844. 

Dear Brother — Your letter enclosing the half-bills, I 
received this morning, and the money cam.e all safely, but 
was delayed one mail from some cause or other. I believe 
I shall, to-morrow, offer the proctor one of my half-bills as 
a pledge for the payment of- my tuition-money, etc. If I 
wait for the counterparts before I begin to attend lectures, 
it will probably be Friday before I can commence. To de- 
posit the half-bill would be evidence of my honest intention 
to pay, and make it my interest to pay w'hat might be due, 
for, of course, the remaining half, without the one depos- 
ited, could have no value. My only objection to doing so 
is, not the fear of refusal, but the appearance it would carry 
of doubting any man's confidence in my honor. That men 
will distrust a stranger's honor is inevitable, but to confess 
6* 



$S BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

his consciousness of tlieir distrust is rather unpleasant. I 
beUeve, on the wliole, this consideration will deter me i'rom 
the step and make me content to sit in my room and read 
one week longer. 1 should not have said loigcr, for what 
I have alread}' read scarcely deserves the name of a com- 
mencement. The reason I have not read has been the 
want of books, and the reason I didn't bu)' books sooner 
was, my expectation that the course of study would be con- 
trolled by the lectures of the professor. I understand now, 
though, that his lectures are very scanty, and that the chief 
part of the course is to be found in the "Commentaries." 
1 don't know what change the old fellow may work in my 
opinions, but, with m\- present knowledge of him, and his 
system of teaching, I never should have come here. The 
students here, too, generally, are mean — right down mean — 
they look like it; they are generally a set of striplings — \-er}' 
few men amongst them — and they have a foolish way of 
passing a man — always without the least notice of him, 
unless they have gone through the formality of an intro- 
duction. The assumption of such airs has just disgusted 
me with the whole concern, and I have resolved to have 
nothing to do with them. Reese is wrong in a great many 
of his prejudices, but he is perfectly right in his contempt 
for a eollege-stiident. The Athens students had traits per- 
vading the whole that seemed to be derived from the very 
air they breathed, and to infect everything within the col- 
lege walls; but here those same traits are immensely mag- 
nified ; and the most prominent of them is self-conceit. . . 
I have a constant inclination to the past. 1 take a gloomy 
pleasure in viewing it. I can't look to the future with an\' 
hope, and I often wonder how anybody else can. Death 
and decay are impressed upon everything. What motive 
is there to do anything in this life? Work to acquire honor 
and avoid disgrace? Sixty years will cover both. Work 
to do good to mankind? If you could shower down bless- 
ings upon the whole generation that now covers the earth, 
how long could they last? They must perish with the sub- 
jects that receive them. And how short is life? Sixty 
}xars will bury all the good you can do, too, and when the 
.sixty years have expired, what will it matter whether you 
have done good or evil ? Some men have left discoveries, 
and inventions, and thoughts, behind them which may long 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 59 

survive, and continue to othci-s the benefits we now derive 
from them; but who can hope to be of that fortunate num- 
ber? And how many centuries will be retjuired to entomb 
both }::^reat and small alike in one common. oblivion? And 
when those centuries shall have been numbered, what will 
distinguish a Newton from the thousand worms or ants that 

he daily crushed in his path? 

Yours, affectionately, 

Linton Stephens. 



The compliment paid to Dr. Olin in the followinr^'- letter 
will not be deemed extravagant by those who had the good 
fortune to hear that superlative pulpit orator. It is " Laii- 

dari a viro hxiidalo : " 



[From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

Washington, D. C, 1844. 

Dear Brother — I attejided church at 

the Chapel, and heard Dr. Olin, of whom you have often 
heard me speak. He looks much broken since I saw him 
last, twelve years ago, and also appeared in very bad health ; 
but he preached a very good sermon — an eloquent one — the 
best one I have heard in a long time ; and perhaps I should 
except this particular from the dull routine of the day's in- 
cidents ; for it rarely occurs that I am so well pleased at 
church as I was to-day: and it rarely occurs to any man to 
hear a better sermon at any time. He had a large audi- 
ence, and gave great satisfaction. Of course, I bragged on 
him as being a Georgian, my instructor, etc. Judges Mc- 
Lean and McKinley were out to hear him. The Chief Just- 
ice and Judge Story missed the treat. Toombs and Cran- 
ston were at the capitol. 

Some of the letters which follo\\- ^\ ill sho\\- that devotion 
to Themis did not occupy all Linton's time and engross 
all his attention while at Charlottesville. He offered sac- 
rifice upon the altars of some other divinities as well: 



60 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

[From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 

University OF Virginia, December, 1844. 

Dear Brother — This morning, I received from you five 
papers — one of which, the Miscellany, ought to have come 
yesterday ; but, what I should have vahied more than all 
the rest, no letter. Yesterday, besides the letter I then 
answered, I got a copy of the HiDitnss. I read everything 
in it, from Henry Clay down to the advertisements, and 
among them I saw many names which I remembered: one 
was Winters, the man who sold you cigars last session. I 
wish you \\ould send me the next Huntress also; for in that 
the old lady promises to conclude a tale which has interested 
me enough to make me wish to know how it ends. B\'- 
the-way, did you notice this sentence in the copy you sent 
me: " Little Georgian, (in capitals) don't give up the paper." 
It is a solitary, disconnected piece, and I cannot imagine any 
meaning for it, unless you have been threatening to stop 
the old lady's paper, (because she won't describe you,) and 
she intends that sentence as an exhortation to you "to 
hold on and you'll get the blessing in due season." That 
you may be better able to interpret it, I cut it out, 
together with the piece immediately preceding it, and en- 
close it to you ; the preceding piece is to show its want of 
connection with anything else. The Miscellany I devoured 
even with more avidity than the Huntress. One piece in 
it — "The Departed One" — is very humorous, and for its 
strain of consolation is elegantly suited to the present con- 
dition of the poor Whigs. It was very generous, too, of a 
Loco (Neal, the author of "Charcoal Sketches,") to be so 
considerate of his opponents in the hour of their affliction. 
If Clay could just see it, he would almost congratulate 
himself upon his defeat — the leisure of a beaten candidate 
is painted in such charming colors. And then, too, Mr. 
Clay has what that piece considers an indispensable for 
turning a beating into a pleasant thing — "'he's used to it!'' 

December ii. — This much I wrote yesterda}', but (it 
being late in the evening when I vras writing) was pre- 
vented from finishing my letter by the entrance of the man 
who came to set up my clock. He detained me some half- 
hour, and didn't leave me time to finish my letter and mail 
it by dark ; so having nothing to write of interest any way. 



' JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 6l 

I deferred it until to-day. It is now nearly eleven o'clock, 
and my clock hasn't made a blunder. I think it is quite a 
sure-footed animal, and will, in all probability, Jiold up to 
the end of the track — that is, to the end of the present ses- 
sion here. But whether it does or not, I have got it war- 
ranted anyhow. Am I not a perfect Moses Primrose? I 
believe he had his gross (a whole gross) of spectacles war- 
ranted, too — didn't he? I shall make my fortune at trade 
if I stay here long. A clock for ^27, and a clock out of 
pure economy! Campbell, the blind phrenologist, told me 
some years ago that my head indicated merca>dile talent, and 
notwithstanding the limited field which my genius has had 
for display in that line, I am likely to establish both the 
truth of the science and his claims to an understanding of 
it. The Message which you started for me has not arrived 
yet; suppose you send me another, if you have a copy by 
you, as I should take some pleasue in reading even the lu- 
cubrations of "The Captain,"* when they derive some im- 
portance from the position he occupies. I have already, 
though, some hints of its contents, both from your own 
account and the papers you have sent me. In the Globe 
you sent me, I sat and read the correspondence upon the 
subject of annexation. Mexico is certainly pretty belliger- 
ent, at least, in language, and I presume it was that feature 
in the correspondence ^yhich (as you say in a letter of 
Sunda)''s date, and which I received this morning) has 
somewhat abated the hopes of annexationists. But as I 
am no politican, and you recommend me to continue so, I 
will say no more upon annexation. I will mention, how- 
ever, that Calhoun advanced a new idea (to me) to prove 
the independence of Texas — that feature of the Mexican 
Constitution authorizing Texas, or any other of the Con- 
federated States, to erect an independent government after 
attaining to a certain degree of population. The idea is 
not conclusive, but certainly has more plausibility than 
some I heard from the stump in Georgia upon the same 
point. And speaking of Georgia: the piece you sent me 
this morning, upon "Abolition in Georgia," is, as Greeley 

calls it, "truly a gem." 

The commencernent of the rain at Crawfordville corre- 
sponds to the time of its commencement when I was on the 
road, and though we had no pour, yet for the next two days 

* President Tyler was called "The Captain." 



62 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

the rain was nearly continuous. My zeal " to make a pil- 
grimage to Monticello" will never make me encounter such 
weather as they have in winter: so I believe I shall defer 
it until Spring. I wonder Cobb didn't come over to pay 
his adorations, in his holidays, particularly, as he started in 
this direction. If it just was "Old Hickory's" place of re- 
pose, wouldn't he bow to it? His devotions would do 
honor to a Catholic 

[From A. II. S. to I,. S. ] 

Washington, D. C, December, 1844. 

Dear Brother — We had an inter- 
esting time in the House to-day, in some skirmishing be- 
tween Dromgoole, Rhett, et al. But principally between 
those two. For myself, I think it was the most interesting 
debate I have witnessed upon the floor of the House since 
I have been a member. There was no noise — no confusion. 
The House was attentive and the speaking was good. 
Rhett made decidedly the best speech I ever heard made 
in the House. It was short, as well as all the rest of them, 
(and such are generally the most interesting — set-speeches 
I detest,) and the latter part highl)^ impassioned. I do not 
know how it will appear in the report, or even how it will read, 
if written just as it was delivered, but it was first-rate to 
hear; and I have long since been of the opinion that elo 
quence depends mainly upon action and niaiiucr. I will 
send you the papers of to-morrow, that you may see the 
proceedings. They were, upon the whole, the most inter- 
esting we have had. The subject was Dr. Duncan's bill 
relating to the election of President 

[ From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

Washington, D. C, December, 1844. 

Dear Brother — I have put up for you 

the Globe of last night, which contains the report of the 
debate yesterday in the House, which I mentioned in my 
last night's letter; but, just as I expected, it seems like a 
poor affair in the report, and the meanest .speeches — such as 
were not listened to at all, for instance, quite as good as 
those which produced such sensation in the House. I be- 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 63 

lieve I mentioned that Judge Story always has his bottle 
of brandy at dinner; he is one of the most incessant talkers 
you ever heard, and, moreover, always talks good sense. 
1 am much pleased with him. He just seems and talks to 
tlie company as if he had always been acquainted with each 
one. He came into my room yesterday to borrow the 
New York Tribune. He says we ought not "to work too 
hard," or try to do too much; but when the day is spent, 
we ought to go home and sit down, and look in the fire. . . 

It is said that the best spoken speeches rarely read well ; 
vice versa. One of Charles James Fox's sayings was : ' ' Did 
the speech read well when reported? If so, it was a bad 
one." 

[ From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 

UNiVKRsrrv OF Virginia, December, 1844. 

Dear Brother — I this morning received from )'ou a 
number of papers (13) — so many that I presume they were 
not all started at once — and had letters, one enclosing one 
from John Bird, and the other inquiring certain names. 
That poor postmaster this morning certainly had his tri- 
umph converted into chagrin and dismay ; his patriotism 
by now must have reached the fusing point; its high tem- 
perature may melt your sealing-wax. In the letter enclos- 
ing John's, and bearing date of the 12th instant, you said 
you had already written to me that evening; that letter has 
not reached me yet, but I shall expect it to-morrow morn- 
ing — that is, if, after inquiring, I find the office will be open 
on Sunday ; very probably it will not, and if so, I shall go 
up to-night when the mail comes. But, no doubt, you are 
getting uneasy at my silence about old Mr. Barlow. The 
old fellow's name, as it appears on his sign, is " R. Bar- 
low." I remember, as you and I were driving on after 
him down to his house, just before we got to him, you said 
his name was " Billy Barlow; " that fact made me examine 
the sign to see how it appeared there, and I remember very 
distinctly that it was R. Barlow, which I mentioned to you, 
and you interpreted it to stand for " Bobuel. " The name of 
"the boy at the grocery," as you uncourteously st)'le him, 



64 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

is Leroy ; but as you will have to content yourself with the 
"old man's initials," it would be i^ood policy to curtail 
"the boy at the grocery's" name to the same dimensions, 
in order to give the appearance of not taking the old 
fellow's name from the sign, but by knowing it from repu- 
tation. Let your address, then, be " R. & L. Barlow." I 
am sorry that I have forgotten the man who wanted you to 
send him a document to Wrightsboro or Raytown ; it seems 
to me it is something like Briscom, or Perry, and I am not 
altogether certain that I ever knew it ; he put me in mind 
of Threewitt, of Warrenton, but upon what principle of as- 
sociation, I have also forgotten — perhaps from the simi- 
larity of names — but I believe it was from some business 
allusion he made to Threewitt. Now, again, his name 
seems to be Bryant, and still again he somehow or other 
reminds me of Hugn Ward, and he contrived to revive in 
my mind the memory of Daniel VVatkins, of I^^lbert. If all 
these materials can be of service to your correspondence, you 
are welcome to them, and I hope they may prove more 
profitable in your hands than they have thus far proved in 
mine. 

I attended another lecture to-day, (the Seniors attend 
Juniors' lectures,) and have yet found little cause to change 
my opinion of Judge Tucker. He is a very clever old 
fellow, and, 1 will admit, shows more sense than his first 
appearance promised. Aylett — Alet, as they pronounce 
it — that I mentioned yesterday as having the reputation 
of standing well, is of the Juniors, and, perhaps, does 
answer best of his class ; but Gregg, of the Seniors, is 
far superior to him in an understanding of the author. 
Gregg boards at my house, and, 1 think, is quite a smart 
fellow. He has a green look, but also seems both conscious 
and careless as to its ^ect. He has a big head, long, light 
hair, and usually has a half-reckless, half swaggering, half- 
good-natured (if a thing can have three halves) smile upon 
his face. There is in my class one man from Georgia — his 

name is . I presume he is a relative of . I 

could determine a man's locality by "that air" as readily 
as you could his origin by "taken" — the Taliaferro provin- 
cialism — for I have never yet seen it in a NortJi Carhiiy 
nigger. 

I see Jones* has changed you from the Committee of 

* Speaker of the House. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 6$ 

Claims to that on the District. How do you like the 
chanj^e? Less laborious, no doubt, and perhaps less /u>/i- 
orahle also. 

It is getting late in the evening, and as I want a walk, I 
will go down town and mail this letter, which I must now 
close from want of time, room and matter. 

Yours, affectionately, 

Linton Stephens. 

[From A. II. S. lo L. S. ] 

Washington, D. C, December, 1844. 

Dear Brother — ' 

I intend to send you a small book upon " Eti- 
quette, " which I want you to read ; the style is pretty good, 
and it is quite instructive. I commend it the more to your 
attention, inasmuch as General Clinch, the other day, in 
his inquiries after you, .said that you had "paid more atten- 
tion to the cultivation of your mind than you had to your 
manners, and that you ought to devote more attention to 
the latter than you had done." I only give you the sub- 
stance of the old General's remarks. They were made in 
"all kindness," after a free and full conversation about 
young men, their prospects, etc., and after giving instances 
by way of illustration. I did not know that he had hardly 
noticed }'ou, much less that he had paid any attention to 
}'our appearance. He, by-the-by, has a high opinion of 
your ability, but says "a man, to be useful, must, in the 
present state of society, pay some attention to the graces." 
That was his language 

[ From L. S. to A. II. S'. ] 

University OF Virginia, December 19, i(S44. 

Dear Brother — Yesterday I dela}-ed writing to }'ou 
until nearly dark, through negligence; this evening I have 
done the same thing through the necessity of entertaining 
a consummate bore. And if a short letter to you is less en- 
tertaining than a long one, why, then, the consequences 
will very properly fall upon the shoulders that ought to bear 
them; for you are the cause of the brevity that must char- 
acterize this epistle. You may be at a loss to know how 

7 



66 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

you, at the distance of one hundred and seventy miles, 
could interfere with my writing here, but many things are 
true that can't be explained. In this case, however, though 
you may not imagine the explanation, yet I have the key 
to the mystery ; and — to turn the kc)^ and throw back the 
bolt immediately, without any ceremonies at the door — I 
am indebted to you for the visit of the gentleman who has 
just left me, and whom I have used the freedom to denom- 
inate a bore. He is a Mississippian, and has not lived be- 
yond the reach of your notoriety, (I might have said /rt-z/zr, 
mightn't I?) He knows you as a politician, and takes it 
for granted that I must be also infected with a love of pol- 
itics, (Hunt, I suppose, having told him I was )-our brother.) 
He has a brother-in-law who is a big politician, and he him- 
self certainly is infected with a love of politics — though I do 
not come to my conclusion upon his system of reasoning ; 
nor do I undertake to say that the infection was caught 
from his brother-in-law. The fact of its existence, however, 
is certain ; nor do I go beyond himself for the evidence of 
it. Accordingly, the relish for politics which he imparted 
to me has acted like a charm, and drawn him towards me 
by the irresistible laws of sympathy. I judge of the motive 
of his visit by the theme of his conversation ; and though I 
may have misjudged the one, I certainly shall never forget 
the other, for misery makes a deep impression. But after 
I have told you that your name received its share of his 
notice, I am afraid I might exhaust all my evidence and all 
my spleen without converting you to my opinion of his 
agreeability. I shall, therefore, not make the attempt, but 
content myself with giving you his name to be blended with 
whatever impression you have already taken of the man, 
and also the name of his big brother-in-law, who "has been 
called the Father of the Whigs in Mississippi." The name 

of my acquaintance is , and the name of the " Father 

of the Whigs" is General ." Do you know him? 

I have seen his name in some newspaper sometime during 
the canvass just over 

So free, and full, and frequent was the correspondence 
between the brothers, that almost every incident of the day, 
every good story, every new anecdote, etc. , was communi- 
cated. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 67 

The life of a Congressman at Washington, thirty years 
ago, was a busier one than now, perhaps, if we take the 
following description of one as ensample of all. Surely the 
office should be a sinecure at no time : 

[ From A. 11. S. to L. S. ] 

Washington, D. C, December 20, i8.]4. ^ 

Dear Brother — I was cut rather short in my letter last 
night by the arrival of Henry to carry my mail to the office 
sooner than I expected. Indeed, I had not been conscious 
of the lapse of time, or how long I had been engaged in my 
other correspondence ; for you must know — or if }-ou do 
not, I will tell you — that I have almost as many letters to 
write this winter as I had last, of all kinds and characters, ex- 
cept congratulatory ones, and I may also except " buckets," 
for in the midst of general depression, I have been spared 
that mortification. Most letters now received are expostu- 
lations for intercession in behalf of honest postmasters, \\\\o 
are about to be put under the ' ' law of proscription. " What 

will our country come to? , of Athens, poor fellow, 

is about to be made to Avalk the plank — is at the head of it. 
He and I, however, diave got along thus far remarkably 

well. is more distant, but social upon passinj.;. 

Cobb and Lumpkin board at the next door, )'ou know, and 
we see each other much more frequently. I never was so 
destitute of leisure hours in my life. I am aow living com- 
pletely by the clock, and each day is but the routine of the 
succeeding one. I arise exactly at half-past eight, and get 
ready for breakfast in just twenty minutes; the next ten I 
spend in sitting by the fire in a large arm-chair — not a 
rocker, (though I have one on the other side of my table,) 
but a great big cushioned, calico-covered affair, which 
almost hides me — looking over the morning papers just to 
see if there is anything new to talk about at breakfast, 
which is announced at nine precisely. After breakfast, I 
, smoke a cigar — or rather, two or three — finish the papers, 
and then read miscellaneous matter (I am now upon the de- 
bates in the Virginia Convention that adopted the Federal 
Constitution) until twelve. I then go to the House and re- 
main during the session, which generally continues until 



68 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

about three. I then return and commence writing letters, 
and keep at that until dinner, at four o'clock, which lasts 
generally about an hour. I then resume writing until tea 
at six, where I remain about five minutes, and then return 
to close my correspondence by seven, when the mail closes. 
I then read until twelve o'clock, after which I know but 
little until half-past eight next day: and these are my daily 
habits. I have not )^et been to one of the departments — at- 
rt^nding to all business there by correspondence; nor have 
I yet atteiTded a meeting of our committee. It has not )'et 
been called together. Upon the whole, I am quite agina- 

hly situated 

We had an interesting debate in the House to-da)' upon 
the bill to renew the Sub-treasury, which Dromgoolc 
brought up. The speakers were Adams, Dromgoole, Smith 
of Indiana, (Caleb B. ), Kennedy of the same State, and 
Schenck, which kept the House in session until past four 
o'clock, when Yancey got the floor, and there was an ad- 
journment until to-morrow, when the same subject, I pre- 
sume, will be taken up. I expect the bill will be passed 
to-morrow. I can then say, " I told you so," to my Avorthy 
constituents. Hereafter, I believe I shall send 5^ou no 
paper but the Globe, and Intelligencer, and the Georgia 
papers, for I suspect, judging from myself, that it is too 
great a draft upon your time to look over all the trash that 
is printed ; and, in speaking of your time, how is it you say 
nothing of moot-courts? Do you have none in the univer- 
sity? I should also like to know how you answer in your 
class, compared with others. Have you taken a respecta- 
ble stand or not? You have not yet told me whether you 
joined the Senior or Junior class. The letter I got from 
you last night mentioned the note enclosed in a previous 
one, which came duly to hand. All your letters have been 
received, but I have not got them of a night until about 
half an hour after our mail closes. I sent you last night 
one sent from brother John the night before, and to-night 
I send you another which came to hand last night. But I 

have not time to say more 

Affectionately, 

A. H. Stephens. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 69 

[From A. II. S. to L. S. ] 

Washington, D. C, December 20, 1844. 

Dear Brother — We had an agreeable 

dinner-party. General Clinch told the best anecdote of 
any, and a good one it was. It was that of two Georgians- 
one up-countryman and a low-countryman — meeting at 
St. Mary's during the last war. The up-countryman had 
never seen tide-water, and said it was a ' ' strange river that 
runs both ways." The low-countryman had never seen any 
but tide-rivers, and said, "Why, you d — d fool! who ever 
saw a river that didn't run both ways? Why, don't you 
know if the river always runs the same way, it %ooiil(i run 
out r' 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

University of Virginia, December 22, 1844. 

Dear Brother — Your letter of the 20th instant, and 
those you sent me from brother John and John Bird at the 
same time, together with the President's message, all ar- 
rived here by last night's mail, and I received them and 
read them this morning, (it being now quarter-past ten a.m.) 
As your letter reminded me of some omissions I have made 
in my account of the law-school, my stand in the class, etc., 
I will, before I forget them again, (I have several times, 
but always at the wrong time, thought of giving them,) pro- 
ceed to supply the omissions. As to viooi-amrts : such a 
thing is not dreamed of here. I expected the exercises of 
such courts to be the chief advantage of coming here, and 
accordingly, one of my first inquiries was, how ofteji they 
were held, and how managed? To my surprise, the answer 
was that there was no such thing known in the concern. 
The class, howev^er — or rather, the two classes of law-stu- 
dents — have formed a contemptible Laiv Club, (I don't think 
clubs are efficient instruments — witness the defeat of Clay, 
backed by a nation of them,) which meets once a week at 
night, and with which Judge Tucker has no more concern 
than you have. You may well imagine, the discussions in 
it are none of the most edifying, nor long in continuance. 
In fact, I don't think there has been a meeting of the thing 
since 1 have been here. I shall make an effort to get into 



70 RIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

it next Wednesday night, the regular time of meeting. I 
have not informed you of my stand in the class, and cannot 
do so now, for the simple reason that I have none at all. 
I haven't answered a single question yet. I am making 
great progress, ain't I? But there are many others who do 
very little better; and then, the difference between them 
and me is, that they try and J never do. They have ques- 
tions askeel\\\Qra ; I never have — not one yet. Judge Tucker 
said he would not question me for "sometime," because, I 
suppose, he took me to be a fool, and didn't wish to ex- 
pose me until I might reconcile myself to my fate b)- \\'it- 
nessing that of others; at any rate, that's what he said; (1 
don't mean that's the reason he gave. ) And I don't much 
regret the course he pursues in excepting me, for his ex- 
aminations are not close at all, and could, therefore, oper- 
ate as no incentive nor help to study; and as to display, I 
am as indifferent to it as to a dish of eollards. There is con- 
siderable curiosity, however, in the class to hear me ques- 
tioned. They don't at all understand my exemption, and 
sometimes ask me wh)^ the Judge doesn't call on me to an- 
swer. I never tell them, but leave them in their wonder. 
By-the-way, they consider me a queer cliieken here. I don't 
wear straps to my pants ; and then, too, the want of boots 
completes the oddity of my costume. \'ou may think I 
am unduly suspicious, but it is a fact as I tell }-ou. 1 have 
not been in the compan\^ of one who didn't cast a sly glance 
at my feet; (perhaps, after all, their si:ve was the only won- 
der.) To all this, of course, I'm perfectly indifferent — 
rather enjo)- it. Another strange and inexplicable thing is, 
that any mortal man should get as many letters as I do ; 
(each morning a list of all the letters in the office is put upon 
the door, and in that way they see how many I get.) They 
say I get letters enough to break a common man, and to 
keep the devil (it's their phrase, not mine) from study, if 
he answered them all. Then comes the question, "Look 
here: do you in earnest, though, have to pay postage on 
'em all?" "No." "Is it paid at home, or are they 
franked?" "Franked." "Well, who the devil franks so 
many?" That's rather a rude question, but still I answer, 
"A brother." "Your brother's a member from Georgia, 
then, is he?" "Yes." And by just that series of ques- 
tions and answers is the onl)' wa}' these I 'irginia)is, or any 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 7 1 

of them (Virginians) know that there ever was such a man 
as Stephens in Georgia. (Great fools, ain't they?) The 
Alabamians, however, and Mississippians, and South Car- 
ohnians, seem to be pretty famiHar with your name. 

But speaking of the Tuckers reminds me to tell you that 
the Judge is a half-brother to John Randolph. He told it 
himself, the other day, in the recitation-room. By way of 
quarreling with the English rule, excluding half-bloods from 
the inheritance, he said he "could have loved no man more 
than Mr. John Randolph, who was only his half-brother." 
After leaving the room, I heard a very strong reason for his 
love: The Judge, in his young days, went to Kentucky to 
settle himself. When he had got there, Randolph wrote 
him that he was unwilling for him to settle over there, and 
that if he would return, he himself would give him an estate 
here 

[ From A. II. S. to L. S. ] 

Washington, D. C, December 22, 1844. 

De.'^r Brother — J>-idge Story says 

he never told but one anecdote, and he used to tell that on 
all occasions, until W^eb.ster stole it from him, and had the 
impudence once to tell it in his presence ; and after that he 
had forsworn anecdotes. This he related with a good deal 
of humor at the table this morning — but, of course, it was 
all fudge, for he is always telling anecdotes, or indulging in 
jokes, etc. Ewing is a great hand at puns, and is con- 
stantly indulging in them. For ins,tance : this morning at 
the table, in speaking of the abilities of the lawyers and 
judges of England, Story was running down Kenyon and 
holding up for BuUer. McLean and Taney were descant- 
ing upon the merits of others — and amongst them Scarlett, 
who, you know, is one of the great men of that country. 
Ewing remarked that he was certainly the deepest rcei (read) 
man of any of them. And in speaking of the attack of 
the Huntress upon the judiciary, which you will see in the 
papers of this week, the partiality of Mrs. Royall was com- 
mented upon. For the truth in that matter was, when Mrs. 
Royall came in, Judge McLean was the only man that got 
up and cut out, and yet she compliments him. Some one 
mentioned the fact of how Judge McLean had passed by 



72 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

her as she came in at the door. Irving remarked that he 
supposed she thought the ' ' Judge did passing ivcll. ' ' J udge 
Stor}' takes it all in fun, howev^er, and says he must send 
Mrs. Royall his card with apology, etc. , and that there is 
as much truth in that narration as in any history, etc. 

If so, 1 pity the world: for to tell you the truth, there is 
not one A\'ord of truth in it hardly. I was at the table and 
saw the whole show.''" * 

Yours, affectionately, 

A. H. Stephens. 

[From T.. S. to A. H. .S. ] 

University ok Virginia, December 23, 1844. 

Dear Brother — After filling a sheet and a half yester- 
day, 1 found I had omitted to tell you which class I had 
joined, and also to ask your opinion of offering for gradua- 
tion. I have entered the Senior class, which, in the regu- 
lar course, graduate next July. A student, however, can 
pursue the studies he likes without offering for graduation. 
The only advantage that I know of in a diploma is, that it 
operates as a license to practice law in this State. The dis- 
advantage to a student from any other State is, that to get 
a diploma, he would have to devote a great deal of atten- 
tion to lliginia law, that might be more profitably em- 
ployed in other reading. The fact is, I can read just what 
I please, and be excused from what I please by asking the 
indulgence of departing from the usual course. Judge 
Tucker is just one of those old gentlemen who will let you 
do anything. I don't think you have any idea of the time 
I am throwing away here upon Virginia law. Those in- 
terminable "Commentaries" are to be the te.xt for a long 
time yet, and I think it would be too liberal an estimate to 
allow half their contents to be ccnnmon laiv doctrine. The 
largest portion of them is devoted to Jlrginia statutes and 
discussions, many of the latter taken from his own practice. 

I am glad, for the sake of your reputation, that the Sub- 
treasury bill has passed the House ; but your prediction is 

*This incident recalls the late General Benning's definition of history: 
" History," said he, "is true in genera/, auti false in every partieulai." 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 73 

not yet fully fulfilled, for I think you risked your reputation 
before the Raytown people, at least, upon the sub-treas- 
ury's becoming one of the measuies of Polk's administration, if 
he should be elected. But I suppose, however, even under 
this construction of your predictions, there was a plain un- 
derstanding that both branches of Congress should have 
administration majorities — and, yet again, I suppose the 
Senate of the next Congress will be Democratic, and there- 
fore, as I said at first, the prediction is not yet fulfilled, but 
is only in process of fulfillment. It must be confessed, 
however, that it is fairly "under wa}^ " and sailing beauti- 
fully, with 123 to 65. That measure seems to be decidedK' 
even more Democratic than the repeal of the 21st rule. 
These two acts combined must certainly throw some con- 
fusion into the Southern wing of the Democracy. They 
will no doubt, though, take great consolation from the pro- 
portion of Whig and Democratic votes upon rescinding the 
2ist ride, and on that hook, it must be confessed, they ma}' 
shuffle off some of the blame on the shoulders of "Feder- 
alism," as old Blair persists in denominating Whiggery. 
But tliis will do for this time — so good evening for to-day. 

[From L. S. to A. 11. S. ] 

University of Virginia, December 24, 1844. 

De.JlR Brother — It seems, at present, that the elements 
intend to smile upon this Christmas; for you will seldom 
see a more charming day than we have here now, or a finer 
prospect for a continuance of the fine weather, until the 
great "natal day" itself shall have been ushered in, and 
numbered among the many that have preceded it. Christ- 
mas, however, seems to be a day of very small importance 
with the people here, if you judge from the preparation to 
celebrate its return. Everybody, it is true, speaks of ob- 
serving the day itself, but don't think of paying any atten- 
tion to that glorious festive week beyond, which is emphat- 
ically called "Christmas Holidays," and which in other 
places, and even in old Georgia, is devoted to joy (per- 
haps not a very reasonable joy) over our passage through 
the toils of another year, and feasting upon the good things 
it has yielded to the labors of man and beast 

I have read the debate upon the revival of the sub-treas- 



74 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

ury, and found it very badly reported in the Globe. In the 
Intelligencer, the report was, if not more faithful, at least 
much more sensible — particularly with respect to the 
speeches of Adams, Dromgoole, etc.; but as that report 
stopped about mid-way in the debate, I suppose I have got 
a very imperfect idea of how the whole passed off. I 
thought Adams raised a strong objection to the first clause 
of the bill. Dromgoole attempted to ward off the old 
man's attack upon the first clause by interposing the 
eleventh to support it. But the distinction which, for the 
purpose of his argument, he drew between transferring and 
dislnirsing, certainly has no foundation in the eleventh 
clause, which makes it obligatory upon .sv/Z'-treasuries to obey 
the orders of "the treasury," either for transferring or dis- 
bursing moneys. There seems to be some difference in 
opinion as to what issues were decided in the late canvass. 
Tyler sa)'s "Annexation" was the issue, Dromgoole, the 
"Sub-treasury," and Caleb B. Smith says broad, unmeaning 
"Democracy." "How this world is given to lying." 

But speaking of Congress: didn't J^'oster make a fine 
Denioeratie speech on the bill to reduce the duty on railroad 
iron. Chappell must ha\'e congratulated his sagacity in dis- 
covering the allies of the South, and applauded his patriot- 
ism for throwing himself into their arms. I noticed )'our 
name recorded against laying that bill on the table — how 
is that? Did you want to still hold it up, and encourage 
and persuade the vandals to lay their ruthless hands upon 
the "great Whig tariff of '42" — that source of so many 
blessings? or, would you reall)^ like some "modification of 
detail," but so much as "not to disturb the equilibrium of 
the bill?" Are you suiting your remedies to the condition 
of your patient? You certainly have very carefully exam- 
ined the />nlse of poor sick old Georgia, and perhaps have 
concluded that the medicine heretofore has been given in 
too large doses, and, like any humane physician would, have 
determined to diminish the prescription and administer it in 
broken closes. The next stump-speech I hear you make, I 
shouldn't be surprised to find something after the following : 

''Fello-a'-eiti::ens — I always said the tariff of '42 was not a 
perfect measure ; it is beyond human ability to attain per 
fection hi anything, much less in adjusting the difficult 
subject of a tariff, and the burthens of government press 



JUDGE LTNTON STEPHENS. 75 

equally upon every nerve (you are fond of medical figures) 
of this vast and extended people. Our fathers themselves 
(then you'll wax eloquent) foresaw the necessity of making 
changes even in the Constitution itself, and one of the wisest 
features in the instrument is the power which it lodges in 
posterity of suiting it to their condition — so in all other 
things, there are imperfections which cannot be developed 
nor remedied but by the lapse of time and the test of ex- 
perience. I have been governed by these views (very ex- 
plicit) in casting my vote, which is now arraigned before 
the bar of }'our judgment, and, as a faithful servant, I la}- 
my work before you, and commit my fate to the decision 
of an honest con.stituency. The duty on iron weren't right 
'nohow,' and it ought to have l3een repealed. I al- 
ways told you just that same," etc. But I have been long 
enough upon foolishness, and haxing nothing else to add, 
I'll "just enclose" for to-night. 

[From A. II. S. to L. S. ] 

W.'\SHiNGTON, D. C, December 25, 1844. 

Dear Brother — 

1 think, upon the whole, that it is best for you not to set 
for graduation if you have to devote too much of your 
time to the study of the statute-law of Virginia. But 
if, with a little additional exertion, you could do it, it would 
be of great advantage hereafter. Becoming acquainted 
with the statute-laws of any one of the States, to a lawyer, 
is a little like acquiring our language to the linguist — all 
others come much easier — and crossing such studies does 
great good. It gives new ideas upon law, and leads to 
nice discrimination of principles; and moreover, if you 
should go to the West, a knowledge of Virginia law will 
be essential, for almo.st all their laws are taken from that 
source. I want you to make the best of your time until 
July; you can, notwithstanding the character of your in- 
structor, learn a great deal at the University, with proper 
application, and doubtless your club will hold something- 
like moot-courts, or have discussions upon questions of law. 
And in all this, if there be such, do not be backward in 
taking part, nor do you be too indifferent to display. . 



'jG BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

[From L. S.' to A. H. S. ] 

University of Virginia, January 9, 1845. 

Dear Brother — But as I am not at 

all disposed to moralize this evening, I will proceed to an- 
swer your other question, which was, whether I retained 
my hearing that "come to" on the Weldon Railroad. 
Now, all the "clearance," though perceptible at the time, 
was only temporary, and has been succeeded by the usual 
deafness. You once told me that you thought my mind 
had been affected by the rupture, or whatever derangement 
it is in my head. I think so, too. That supposition ac- 
counts for one of the most (perhaps, the most) prominent 
defects in my mental constitution, the one which you have 
so often attributed to me, but which nobod}- else ever has, 
(perhaps because all who would take the liberty had the 
same fault, and consequently didn't see it in me) — I mean 
the want of attention and observation. You see I can Jicm 
only on one side, (though on that side as well as others) 
and the difficulty of hearing naturally made me careless as 
to what was said — especially after experience had so often 
told me that what I heard was no compensation for the in- 
creased effort of listening. People generally say so little that 
is worth hearing, that it is rather a wonder that men with 
good ears should not become negligent of hearing what gives 
them so little pleasure or information when understood. 
And thus, what was begun in indifference has long since 
ripened into a habit, and has now become a source of real 
mortification to me. I try constantly to stem the current 
of habit, and shake off a dreamy listlessness which 1 some- 
times feel stealing over me, and which, though it has of 
late yielded somewhat to changes of scene and a rising 
sense of the responsibilities of life, I must confess is still 
one of the most pleasing enchantments of my mind. 



The defect in hearing through the right ear was never 
cured. The inconvenience was a source of occasional em- 
barrassment to him ; he once laughingl)'said, he could turn 
his head to catch a sound, quicker than most men could 
wink the eye, if he was curious to hear the sound. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 'J^ 

[From I,. S. to A. II. S. ] 

University OF Virginia, January 12, 1845. 

Dear Brother — There was a failure of the Northern 
mail last night, (owing, perhaps, to the snow) and conse- 
quently, as you have often had occasion to complain in 
your own case, I have nothing to reply to this evening. 
Yesterday morning, when I awoke, the ground was covered 
with snow, (the second time this year) but before night it 
had almost entirely disappeared. The ground was pretty 
damp from previous light rains, which, I believe, I have 
faithfully chronicled as they fell, and the melting of the 
snow, therefore, was very rapid ; there Avas, however, not 
much to melt ; for it was at first not deeper than an inch ; so 
there are no remains of it now, except on the mountains, 
which always retain it much longer than the level. They, 
however, still lift their heads, crowned in snow, and will 
probably for some days yet to come. None fell during the 
day yesterday, but the whole fall was during the previous 
night. To-day the clouds are broken up, but not dispersed ; 
they still float about, and, before they arc completely dis- 
banded, may yet rally their forces and make another dis- 
charge upon shivering mortals beneath ; but I will not risk 
my pretensions to being "weather-wise" by predicting 
such a result. If such shtnild be the result, however, my 
hint of the probability will of course justify me in claiming 
the merit of having foreseen it, and I shall then say, "I 
told you so," with as much complacency as you can as- 
sume when you shall congratulate your constituents upon 
your foresight in predicting the repeal of the 21st rule, the 
revival of the sub-treasury, etc. But if there should be 
}w such result, why, then I will be just as niute as you pos- 
sibly could have been, had fortune been less propitious than 
she has been in fulfilling your prophecies. This has been 
a dull day to me, and apathy is still so strong upon me that 
I have very little expectation of getting to the end of the 
sheet this time. Again to-day, I have failed to go to church, 
and for the same reason that detained me last Sunday — the 
trouble of shaving and dressing after breakfast. But you 
"needn't to say nothing about it" in your answer, for "/ 
wont do so no more.'' Experience has so fully shown me 
the evil ; I shall hereafter avoid it for self-defense, if for no 



78 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

Other reason. Indeed, all punishments seem admirably de- 
signed to remind us of departure from duty by appearing 
in immediate succession to the transgression. I have ex- 
pressed the idea, as' "the preacher" would probably do, 
but not, I believe, exactly according to the truth, for I doubt 
whether punishments are designed at all, and should rather 
say they are necessary evils. Life is a machine, and the 
Maker of it, fully comprehending its operations, benevolently 
gave man directions for managing it, and those directions 
have emanated from perfect knowledge: any departure from 
them results in disorder, (which we call pain or unhappi- 
ness) as the clock must stop when the weight runs down, 
or a cog is broken in the wheel ; and the stopping of the 
clock from such a derangement is as little the result, the 
design, as the punishments that follow in the wake of our 
sins. The machine was not contrived to run under snek cir- 
cunistances. The design and expectation of the Maker was, 
that it should run only so long as all the parts perform their 
allotted functions, and when that performance fails, the con- 
trivance is no longer adequate to answer the design, (till 
after restoration) and disorder and confusion arc the conse- 
quence. Or, another illustration of the idea is to suppose 
life a difficult journey, and that God, with perfect knowl- 
edge of the way, has given man, the pilgrim, a chart on 
which is marked out the way, and all the dangers which 
beset it, clearly: whenever the pilgrim disregards its direc- 
tions, he must inevitably wander from the path and en- 
counter the dangers that hedge it about at every step ; yet, 
his troubles and perils are by no means designed by the be 
nevolent Director. The design is, that the pilgrim shall ar- 
rive at his home which awaits him at the terminus of the 
path, and the misfortunes he experiences on the way, so 
far from being designed, are the result only of his failure to 
consult the Chart, or his disregard of his directions. But 
how many a poor fellow in the world cant read the Chart ! 
The great book of nature and of revelation has no direc- 
tions for him, and his only reliance is upon the original im- 
pressions which Nature stamps upon his heart at the begin- 
ning of the journey ; and how liable are these, too, to be 
obliterated by the malice or ignorance of those who are way- 
farers upon the same great route, or even by his own pas- 
sions, which discover and pursue beauties that float before 
him to lure him to his ruin ! 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 79 

Rut when I began, I had no idea of preaching a sermon ; 
(and I doubt whether the doctrine be orthodox) and, in- 
deed, I didn't know what I would say. But since I have 
been deHvered, you mustn't make any sly allusions to 
"Combe's Constitution of Man;" (like I did yesterday to 
Byron ) there may be a similarity in our ideas ; (ahem !) yet, 
T have not drawn them from him ; and, moreover, if they 
are similar, they are not identical, for I have the authority 
of Sir Edward Coke for saying, ''(2nad simile csi, iion est 
idem.'' 

[From A. II. S. to L. S. ] 

Washington, D. C, January 12, 1S45. 

Dear Brother — You need not have 

cautioned me against intimating a coincidence between your 
views and Combe's. If I am not mistaken, your plagiar- 
ism is from a source or gjuarter which I watch with much 
more sensitiveness than I do the rights of Combe, or of any- 
body else. I think you got them from me, and, therefore, 
will not charge you with taking them from any higher au- 
thority. But I have no leisure to vindicate my rights at 
this time, and will let it pass for the present. 

There was an amusing spat kept up between them for 
sometime as to the "plagiarism," so called; but so far as I 
can judge, it must have been a drawn battle. 

[iMom I,. S. to A. II. S. ] 

Univer.sity of Virginia, January 14, 1845. 

Dear Brother — This morning, I read 

the Intelligencer s report of Yancey's speech in reply to 
Clingman and others — having previously read Clingman's 
speech. To judge from the report, I should imagine that 
Yancey was quite eloquent — especially when I associate the 
remarks with my recollection of liis appearance. I thought 
he had a fine eye and a prepossessing person ; and in his 
speech, he soared immeasurably above the whole tribe of 
the whining Democracy, who speak for nobody but their 
constituents. You needn't imagine, however, that I was 
at all carried away by his eloquence, for I found very little 



8o BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

to approve of after all; and yet, again, I thought he told 
some truth — particularly in his charge of a spirit of disunion 
upon Massachusetts — and he might have added other States, 
too. Massachusetts either wants to break up the Union, 
or, by a little blustering, to scare others into making it a 
little more agreeable with her views. But really, it seems 
to me, she hasn't much attachment for the Union ; and I 
should say that she and South Carolina have less than any 
others — the feeling, in the one instance, springing from the 
ambition of maintaining a reputation for "chivalry," with- 
out any real chivalry entering into the motive, and the other 
from pure Yankee contrariness and dogged- obstinancy. 
liut because this might have been true, it by no means just- 
ified Yancey in declaring it to be so. Such a declaration — 
especially when accompanied by Yancey's impassioned 
manner — can, I should suppose, have no tendency for good, 
but, on the contrary, may do much harm by widening the 
breach at the same time it was exposed to view. There- 
fore, I say, I found very little to approve of in his speech. 
His attack upon Clingman was certainly not justified — 
though, to confess the truth, Clingman deserved a castiga- 
tion. Yancey, however, I thought, proceeded to an entirely 
unjustifiable extent. I said he soared above the whiners to 
their constituents — not, however, that I think Yancey's con- 
stituents were by any means out of his mind, but for the most 
part he appealed to their pride and endeavored to rouse 
their indignation ; while the puppy tribe, of which I have 
spoken, addressed themselves only to the pockets of their 
constituents by a perpetual cant for retrenchment, and to 
their vanity by the most unbounded assertions of their 
"sovereignty." I discovered no instance of such a little- 
ness in Yancey's speech ; he maintained throughout a re- 
spect for himself; and though he may have had an eye 
upon his constituents, yet I think the ruling motive was to 
make a fine speech — one which should tc// upon the House 
and put him in the papers; in short, that his aim was to 

acquire the reputation of an orator 

And speaking of yourself and speeches reminds me of 

"one big lie " that I heard my friend tell upon you 

last night: he told me that, in your discussion at Dahlon- 
ega last summer, when you rose in reply to his father, sev- 
eral of the Democrats left the crowd, and that thereupon 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 8 1 

you shouted out, "There go those rascally Democrats, and 
d — n 'em, let 'em go! " He said he was present at the dis- 
cussion ; but when he saw me smile rather dubiously, he 
stopped short and said, "But does your brother swear?" 
I told him I had never heard you swear; whereupon, he 
faced about and said he reckoned he must have been mis- 
taken, but that he thought you used "some such expres- 
sion." 

I am very much interested in the "Federalist," and am 
becoming a great admirer of Hamilton, by whom most of 
the numbers I have read were written. Well might Judge 
Tucker say, " He was every inch a statesman." He rea- 
soned admirably, and predicted almost as well 

[From I.. S. to .\. M. S. ] 

University OF Virginia, January 21, 1845. 

Daniel asked me if he could propose me as a member of 
the club. I told him he could. He said he would do so, 
but forgot it at their last meeting ; at the second, hov/ever, 
(which was two weeks ago last night,) he did propose me, 
and at the third, I attended, as already said. Of course, 
however, it would not do so well to speak at my first at- 
tendance, and I accordingly reserved myself for last night. 
I went up swelling with a speech against universal suffrage; 
(they don't discuss law.) Hunt asked me, beforehand, if 
I intended to speak, and when I told him "yes," he said 
he was going to carry out a crowd to hear my debut, and 
that I must be on my "p's" and "q's." There was, ac- 
cordingly, a pretty good crowd ; but J am sorry to confess 
that 1 was not the chief object of attraction. That honor 

belonged to Colonel , of Tennessee, from "Mr. 

Polk's own district." He is a common jest; and whenever 
he promises to give a speech, (as he did last night,) he is 
always able to command an audience. He is a member of 
the law-class, (Senior,) but has not, I think, given a correct 
answer to a single question since I have attended recita- 
tions. He certainly is thus far a very remarkable parallel 
to Chancellor Kent, who, you remember, Jim Jones said, 
read Blackstone through without getting an idea. Colonel 

J has not yet, it is true, read through, but so far as 

8* 



82 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

he has read, it may be safely asserted that he has gathered 
no idea. In so great demand is his oratory, that he has 
been appointed by the club to deliver a public oration, on 
the 22d of February, in celebration of the anniversary of 
Washir.gton's birth-day. But he has not the least suspicion 
that he is made a butt of — rather sets down his promotions 
as the sincerest evidence of respect for himself and admi- 
ration for his genius. If he should hereafter " astonish the 
nation," and prove himself another Kent indeed, then his 
college honors will doubtless be recounted by some faithful 
biographer, as the repeated testimonials of his associates, 
to his brilliant parts, and as indices of that genius which in 
mature years burst forth with such splendor upon the " pro- 
fession. " I have never seen but one parallel to the Colonel, 
(whatever similarity there may be between him and Chan- 
cellor Kent,) and that one is Travis Lindsay; he said once, 
" if his father would give him five hundred dollars, he would 

study medicine under Dr. B ,''^ and make a rran of 

himself." I say, ''par nobile fratnim!" But as I really 
feel very little like writing, and have written more for rcg7i- 
larity than because I had anything to say, I believe I will 
bring my lucubrations to a close, tru.sting to-morrow even- 
ing will find me in a more willing mood ; so, good-bye for 
this time. 

Affectionately, Linton. 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

University of Virginia, February 9, 1845. 

Dear Brother — I was glad to get a letter again from 
you this morning, after an interval of two days between it 
and your last ; and* I was also glad to find from its date 
(6th) that the failure turned out to be owing to some fault 
in the mail, and not, as I began to fear, to your being too 
unwell to write. You were sick last winter just after you 
made your speech on your right to a seat, and the same 
happening again, seems to indicate that Congressional speak- 
ing doesn't agree with you, while stH1np-s'pc^k\\'\g, instead of 
hurting you, seems to act like excitement does on old man 

* Dr. B. belonged to that class of the disciples of Galen, commonly 
known as " Roof-doctors.'''' 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS, 83 

Adams — fattens you. Are you sufficiently skilled in the 
philosophy of the human frame to assign a cause for the 
difference? or do you admit that a difference exists? Your 
letter of this morning enclosed another from John, mention- 
ing the death of Tom Simmons. Poor Tom ! Though his 
was a small sphere in life, and even there, he was a quiet 
citizen ; yet who, for some time to come, can fill the vacancy 
his absence makes in his own little town ? To think of 
Crawfordville without Tom Simmons in it, seems strange 
indeed. I can scarcely think of a man there who would be 
missed more. I can scarcely recall a single little scene . 
there, but he, with some of his odd sayings, and his dry, 
quiet laugh, seems a principal figure in the group. It is 
hard for me to realize that he is gone ; and it seems strange, 
too, that a man's misfortunes should put him out of reach 
of the very sympathy that should soothe it : the only hope 
of befriending the dead is, to remember and soothe those 
he would have cherished if alive. Tom's little Emily is now 
an orphan girl ; and well do I remember the feeling it used 
to produce upon me, to be told that I was an "orphan boy." 
Though I had never known a father or mother, yet nothing 
broke my spirit like being told that I was without them. 
It .seemed to make me an object of pity in the eyes of other 
people, and that, in turn, made me /rumble in my own. The 
negroes and the neighbors used to speak to me of myself 
as an "orphan boy," and I never heard it applied without 
feeling subdued within myself, and lonely in the world. 
That was the tendency ; and though J may not seem humble 
or subdued now, or might not have seemed so even years 
ago, yet what I appeared, could be no measure of the cause 
at work, and it could be estimated only by what I would 
have been without it ; and if I had been brought up en- 
tirely free from the sense of dependence, and unconscious of 
being pitied, I verily believ^e I should have been one of the 
wildest wretches on earth. Gleams of such a feeling shoot 
across me even now, but they are only gleams, and sink 
and fade ere they have assumed shape and taken direction. 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

University of Virginia, February, 14, 1845. 

Dear Brother — He is altogether a 

rare chap, and I cultivate his acquaintance, or permit him to 



84 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

cultivate mine, that I may have the double pleasure of hear- 
ing him spin his yar/is, (which, true to his sailor's educa- 
tion, he takes great delight in, ) and then of proving them 
to be lies, as I did the other night, for instance. He was 
entertaining a crowd with an account of the wonders of Ant- 
werp, (which he visited in some of his sea-faring wander- 
ings,) and, among other things, mentioned the steeple on 
the cathedral there, which, he said, was about three hundred 
feet high, and was ascended by a flight of steps eleven hun- 
dred in number, and each a foot in thickness. When he 
brought that out, I broke into one of the biggest kind of 
laughs (which the crowd did also, though I believe in my 
heart they saw nothing ludicrous, save in the stupendous 
dimensions of that steeple) and asked him if he didn't mean 
eleven hundred instead of three hundred only, or else that 
there were only three hundred steps instead of eleven hundred, 
each a foot thick. He at first boldly defended himself by in- 
dorsing his first version, and he immediately brought the 
crowd to a stand, and (my remarks had by this time pointed 
out to them the true cause of my laughter) reduced them to 
the unpleasant predicament of not knowing on whom to throw 
the laugh ; fearing that they would prove themselves fools 
by laughing on the wrong side, and equally fearing they 
would produce the same result by not laughing at all, since 
a blunder was evidently committed on one side or the other, 
and not to laugh would be not to perceive or to appreciate 
it — so they were brought to a stand; but I by no means 
permitted things to remain on so critical a balance, but im- 
mediately put off all my mirth, and by a very few words 
satisfied every one of them that eleven hundred steps, each 
a foot thick would (let them ivind as much as they might) 
inevitably reach eleven hundred feet high ; and I then again 
immediately relapsed into my former fit of laughter, in 

which I was again followed by the crowd and by 

himself as heartily as the rest * 

The person, at whose expense the laugh was created, had 
just entered the law-school as a student. He attempted to 
complete his academic education at three different colleges 
/;/ vain. Dismissed from each, he tried a sea-faring life. 
A few^ months' experience disgusted him with that — so he, 
as a dernier rcssort, betook himself to the law. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 85 

[From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

House of Representatives, January 19, 1845. 

Dear Brother — Last night, Mr. 

Clay made a show on the colonization question — and such 
a show I never saw before ! People were here from Bal- 
timore, Philadelphia and New York, to say nothing of 
Alexandria and this city. The House of Representatives 
and galleries were jammed and crammed before five 
o'clock. The Colonization Society were to meet at 7. I 
came over at half-past 6, but found I could not get in at the 
door below, much less to get up the steps leading to the 
House. The people were wedged in as tight as they could 
be squeezed, from outside the door all the way up the steps, 
and the current could neither move up nor down. There 
were several thousands still outside. I availed myself of my 
knowledge of the meanderings of an intricate, narrow pas- 
sage under the rotunda, and round by the Supreme Court- 
room, into the alley from the clerk's room, into the House 
at the side-door by the House post-office, and through this 
Cobb and I, with Robinson, of Indiana, wound our way, 
finding it unobstructed, until we got to the door, where the 
crowd was as tight as human bodies could be jammed ; but 
we drove through the solid mass and got in and passed on 
the .space by the fire to the left of the Speaker's chair, 
where, by looking over the screen, we could see the chair. 
When we got to this place, what a sight vv'as before our 
eyes ! The great new chandelier, lighted up with gas, was 
brilliant and splendid indeed ; and then, what a sea of heads 
and faces ! Every nook and corner on the floor below, and 
the galleries above, the aisles, the area, the steps on the 
Speaker's rostrum, were running over. The crowd was 
pushed over the railing, and men were standing on the out- 
side cornice, all around, and they were hanging on the old 
clock and the figure of time. Such a sight you never saw ; 
norie in the Hall could turn ; women fainted and had to 
be carried out over the solid mass. At about seven, Clay 
came, but could hardly be got in. The crowd, however, 
after a while, was opened, while the dome resounded with 
uninterrupted, continuous "huzza! huzza! huzza!" and 
when he got to the chair, one fellow hollowed " three cheers 
for Henry Clay," which were given in the loudest burst 



86 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

you ever heard ; and when he got through, some fellow 
"hollowed" out, "three more," and again the welkin 
rang. When this burst was over, altogether cried out, 
"three more," and so they kept it up. You never .saw 
such a scene ! After a while, order was restored ; the busi- 
ness of the Society was transacted. Dayton, of New Jer- 
sey, offered a resolution and commenced speaking; but one 
fellow cried, "Clay! Clay !" the cry became general, and soon 
also became general with "put him down ! " "put him out! " 
"pitch him out the window!" but Dayton held out, kept 
speaking until he was literally drowned with "down ! down ! 
down ! hush ! hush ! Clay ! Clay ! Clay, " etc. , and then the old 
hero rose. Three more cheers for Henry Clay were sug- 
gested, and quickly did they come ; three more ! and they, 
too, came ; three more ! and they came ; tJiree more ! and 
they came quicker and louder than any of the others. At 
length, still and quiet reigned, as if no breath stirred from 
any bosom : Clay commenced speaking, and all were silent. 
Of his speech, I say nothing. He was easy, fluent, bold, 
commanding, but, in my opinion, not eloquent. At about 
nine, an adjournment was announced. Cobb and I made 
good our retreat through the same narrow passage, and got 
out in a few moments. I suppose the great mass did not 
get out in an hour. I understand that to/iole acres of peo- 
ple had to go away without getting in at all. Shepperd, 
of North Carolina, whom you know as being more Whigish 
than Clayish, rather snappishly remarked, when we got to 
our mess-quarters, that he (Clay) could get more men to 
run after him to hear him speak, and fewer to vote for him, 
than any man in America. 

[From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

Washington, D. C, February 23, 1845. 

Dear Brother — I dined with Hunt 

at Coleman's. He had a large party, and we had a fine time 
of it. The best joke we had was upon General Clinch, who 

was also present Sometime ago, upon 

a call of the House, the General was not present at first, but 
came in (having been sent for) just as he heard his name 
called by the Clerk ; and all vexed and mad, and puffing, 
and blowing, and sweating, replied or answered to his name, 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 8/ 

at the top of his voice, " A'i?," instead of ''Here,'' as is 
usual in such cases. This caused general notice in the 
House, when I said to him, "General, say 'Here;' it is a 
call of the House;" to which here plied, "Oh, d — n it, I 
don't care; I am against all they do anyhow," loud enough 
for all to hear, which caused a great laugh ; and it caused 
a loud burst, I assure you, at the table. The old General 
took it finely, and we had some fun. Crittenden told, how- 
ever, what affected me most. He said that he had just got 
a letter from a friend in Lexington, who, in giving him the 
news, etc. , remarked that Mr. Clay came that morning to 
his office as usual, (you know he has gone to hard work in 
earnest,) when some stranger being present, remarked, 
"Why, Mr. Clay, have you come from home this morn- 
ing? — it is early." The old Roman replied, "Yes, sir, 
and walked at that; " and, pulling out his watch, told how 
many minutes he had been walking the distance, which was 
a very short time. When his friend, who seemed to be 
himself surprised at it, remarked, "Why, indeed! I be- 
lieve I will enter you in the great foot-race to come off on 
Long Island next month." "Oh, no — you needn't, " re- 
plied Clay, "for if I were to win it, they would contrive 
some way to cheat me out of it." A noble old fellow, 
isn't he? 



[From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

Crawfordville, May 29, 1845. 

Dear Brother — I wrote to you yesterday, informing you 
of my safe arrival home, etc. , and enclosed you fifty dollars, 
giving, at the same time, some suggestions touching your 
return, etc. Since then, I have been reflecting upon a sub- 
ject that I had before thought a little upon, and have con- 
cluded to mention it to you, and that is the propriety of 
your going on to Cambridge and spending the ensuing fall 
at that school. The additional expense would not be an 
object, I think, compared with the advantages to be de- 
rived. I am more inclined to this opinion, from the fact 
stated in one of your previous letters, that you had not 
taken up the subject of Evidence at all in your present 
course, which is so soon to come to a close. Nothing is so 
important to a lawyer as a thorough knowledge of the law 



88 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

of evidence. At Cambridge, I understand, you can pur- 
sue whatever study or branch of the law you wish, and 
I think it very advisable for you to take a course upon Ev- 
idence and Equity practice. Those subjects are well taught 
there. You could govern your studies according to cir- 
cumstances after your arrival. The moot-courts there also 
would be of great advantage. If you were now to return, 
you would not get any practice immediately. You, per- 
haps, had better be improving your mind there, with more 
facilities than you possibly could at home, though it might 
and would be at an increased expense. You would have 
an opportunity of seeing the large Eastern cities — Philadel- 
phia, New York, Boston, etc. — with an opportunity of 
seeing- something of Yankee character. You would, of 
course, go directly to Boston. . . . The commence- 
ment at Cambridge is in September, and by that time, you 
can see how you like the place, and by November, or the 
meeting of Congress, vou can determine whether it would 
be worth while to continue during the winter; if not, you 
could then return, spend a few weeks in Washington, see 
Congress again in session, and come on and set out "your 
shingle" at the beginning of next year. What think you 
of it? I make the suggestion, and advise you to take that 
course, believing it to be best 

[From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

Crawfordville, June ii, 1845. 

Dear Brother — Yours of the 4th instant came to hand 
this evening, and I was glad to hear that you had concluded 
to go to Cambridge ; for there, I think, you will have su- 
perior advantages to those at the University of Virginia — 
though I do not think your time at that place has been mis- 
spent. You have made acquaintances — learned something 
of the world, if not much of the law — and your reading 
there will render you more capable of improvement at the 
other place. But I suppose I need not venture the opin- 
ion that you will find everything entirely different, and you 
will soon discover that you know nothing of law. This, 
perhaps, you vvdll discover sufficiently early. I will, how- 
ever, barely suggest to you, in order to put you on your 
guard : your having graduated at the Law School of the 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 89 

Old Dominion, Avill cause attention to be somewhat directed 
to you, and something will be expected of you, and you 
will not be disappointed in finding that to maintain a stand, 
you will have to study, and study hard. Nothing but close 
application will do there. It is for this reason I wished you 
to go. Your last six months, I take it, have been a sort of 
holiday ; you must now go to work. The Yankees are a 
different people from the Virginians. You will find every- 
thing different — the school, the habits and manners of the 
students, as well as the system of instruction. You must 
accommodate yourself to the new state of things in which 
you are placed; and, above all, you must recollect that you 
go to learn — to gain information — to acquaint yourself with 
the principles and practice of law. Let these be your ab- 
sorbing thoughts. You will find no card-playing, horse- 
racing, and cigar-smoking there. You must, therefore, 
drop your Virginia habits, and bend yourself to work. I 
would advise you to attend to Evidence and Equity prac- 
tice mainly, and never neglect the moot-court 

He received the diploma of Bachelor of Laws from the 
University of Virginia, in July, 1845. Immediately after 
graduation, adopting the suggestion of his brother, as well 
as attracted thither by the splendid reputation which the 
genius and learning of the late Joseph Story — clarum ct 
venerabilc noiurii — had contributed so largel}' to give to that 
nursery of legal science, he repaired to the Law School at 
Cambridge, Massachusetts.!^ 

* Judge Story, at that time Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of 
the United States, was, during the sessions, one of " The Mess" at Wash- 
ington City, whereof Chief Justice Taney, Judge McLean, Judge McKin- 
ley, of the Supreme Bench ; Mr. A. H. Stephens, Mr. Jacob Callamer, of 
the House of Representatives, and others scarcely less distinguished in 
the juridical or political history of the country, were members. He was 
the central figure of the board— the soul of social hilarity and mirth. 
When weightier cares did not forbid, the "Attic nights" — their social 
gatherings reproduced — recall the club-meetings at Wills', or "The Monks 
of the Screw" — • 

"Nights spent not in toys, oi« lust, or wine. 

But search of deep philosophy, 

Wit, eloquence and poesy — 

Arts which all loved." 



90 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

[From A. H. S. to L. S.] 

Hamilton, Ga., June 22, 1845. 

Dear Brother — .... I was very much amused 
at your account of the first interview with Judge Story, and 
the more so from my knowledge of the man, and correct 
idea of just how the scene passed off. He is one of the 
joUiest old men I ever saw, and is always in a fine humor 
and great flow of spirits. But you must be somewhat on 
your guard with him — that is, you must be very careful in 
the observance of certain rules of propriety and decorum. 
Don't suffer yourself to imagine that he has no sense of 
dignity, and that respect which his age and character are 
entitled to from his inferiors. He is free and easy, and in- 
timate even with inferiors, if they pursue the proper course 
on their part. You must, therefore, always keep your dis- 
tance. You may be free and easy, and laugh at his anec- 
dotes, but never assume an air of equality or familiarity. 
Forwardness in a young man is extremely disagreeable to 
Judge Story, and modesty with him is a great virtue. Your 
conduct, therefore, must be exceedingly circumspect. A 
high sense of honor he quickly perceives and greatly ap- 
preciates, and nothing touches or kindles his dislike sooner 
than the discovery of a principle of lawlessness, or reckless- 
ness, or disorder, or insubordination, or even that impertin- 
ence which characterizes so many of our young men of the 
South. Be careful, therefore, of your actions, and always 
endeavor to show yourself orderly, attentive, studious, cour- 
teous and decorous in all your deportment ; for you may 
depend upon it, he is a close ooserver, however little you 
might, on first acquaintance, suppose him to be. 



There Linton Stephens first formed the personal acquaintance of Judge 
Story. It ripened into the warmest friendship — to be dissolved, alas ! too 
soon, by death ! Judge Story died in September, 1845. En passant, I 
heard a gentleman — now deceased, then a leader at the bar, and promi- 
nent in politics, and who was generally very accurate in his statements of 
fact — say that it was Judge Story's influence over Mr. Webster that made 
him a Federalist. Thft truth is, Judge Story never was a Federalist. He 
was brutally beaten by a mob, in the streets of Salem, in 1812, because 
he supported Mr. Madison and the friends of the last war with Great 
Britain — he maintaining that the war was necessary and just. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 9 1 

After completing his course of legal studies at Cam- 
bridge, he returned home; and at the March term, 1846, of 
Taliaferro Superior Court, was licensed to practice law in 
all the courts of Georgia, except the Supreme Court. He 
opened an office at Crawfordville, and at once entered into 
an extensive and lucrative practice. Perhaps no young 
man in the State ever rose so rapidly and so deservedly to 
the head of the profession as he — unless the solitary excep- 
tions be found in the instances of his brother Alexander 
and the late Thomas R. R. Cobb, a gentleman of great 
gifts, great industry and ripe culture — who gave the first 
years of his manhood unremittingly and exclusively to the 
"jealous science of the law." Young Stephens' first fee 
was in a case which fell within the jurisdiction of the Infe- 
rior Court. Before that august tribunal, he lost his case. 
It was carried to the Superior Court by writ of certiorari; 
there again he lost it. Nothing daunted, and contrary to 
the opinions of gentlemen of the profession, whom he con- 
sulted, and who were agreed as to the legal accuracy of the 
judgments rendered, he appealed to the Supreme Court, 
and his case was there sustained. How many young law- 
yers any where would, under such circumstances, have man- 
ifested so much steadfastness of purpose, so much persist- 
ence of conduct, and so much faith in the truth of his own 
convictions! The incident is important only, and is intro- 
duced here only, because it mirrors forth one of the capital 
features of his character — Self-reliance — and that un- 
mixed with arrogance. 

The following letter must have been a stimulant to the 
ambition of the youthful aspirant for a fair renown, and 
gratifying to a pardonable pride : 

[From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

Washington, D. C, February 3, 1846. 
Dear Brother — Your letter, written the day after your 
return from LaGrange, came to hand last night, and I was 



93 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

glad to hear once more from you ; for it had begun to seem 
long. I suppose you are now preparing yourself for ad- 
mission to the bar, and you must keep yourself closely at 
study. You ought to review Blackstone thoroughly, and 
make yourself familiar with the statutes of the State — par- 
ticularly on Attachments, Garnishments, Civil Process, 
Bail, etc. ; indeed, you ought to know well all the statutes. 
To do this, and keep up your other studies, your time is 
short. You ought to recollect that you will have some rep- 
utation at hazard in your examination ; for not only in La- 
Grange are you considered a great man, but all your ac- 
quaintances, and those not your acquaintances, will look 
for something extraordinary from one who has enjoyed so 
many extra advantages. Moreover, the impression has got 
out, by some means, that you arc a very smart felloiv — a 
splendid young man — a great deal smarter than "Ellic" — 
and you must not disappoint that impression ; for recollect, 
when I was admitted. Colonel Lumpkin and Judge Craw- 
ford said I stood the best examination they ever heard. 
Joseph Sturges told me, the other day, that he saw some- 
body who told him that you ' ' were a splendid young man " — 
far above ordinary. Some Virginian asked Howell Cobb, 
the other da}/, about you. He said you had a great deal 
better mind than I had: so you see something very great 
is expected of you, and, to come up to expectation, you 
must "eat but little idle bread." 



Shortly after his admission to the bar, young Stephens 
formed a co-partnership, in the practice, wath his cousin 
and class-mate. Bird, of whom mention has been made in 
preceding pages. It is no mean proof of the high estima- 
tion in which each was held by their fellow-citizens, that 
professional partners in a business which makes, however 
unjustly, personal foes, living in the same village, of con- 
sanguine relationship, of common opinions, feelings, affin- 
ities, should have been simultaneously, by a common con- 
stituency, elected to political station at so early an age. 
Stephens was chosen Representative, for Taliaferro, in 1 849, 
and re-elected successively to the .same office, until he 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 93 

changed his residence to the county of Hancock. Bird 
was chosen Senator, for Tahaferro and Warren, in 185 1, 
and was re-elected to the same office in 1852 and 1853, but 
died in October, 1853, and never took his seat under his 
last election, 

[ From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

Washington, D. C, January 13, 1847. 

Dear Brother — I must tell you 

a good thing Toombs said in reply to Burt the other day; 
and first, by way of explanation, I must premise that Burt 
is anxious to get up an excitement upon the slave question. 
He wanted Toombs to speak upon that subject, and upon 
Wilmot's Proviso, etc., and, amongst other things, told him 
to "peel old Ritchie." Toombs was listening to all his 
lecture, as if agreeing with him, until he came to the last — 
that is, Burt's injunction to him to "peel old Ritchie." 
Here Toombs broke by saying: "Now, by George! skin 
your own skunk ! for I'll be d — d if I am going to hunt any 
such game! " * 

Mr. Stephens was an ardent Whig. His individual pref- 
erence for President of the United States, in 1848, was Mr. 
Clay, as it had been in 1844; but, believing that General 
Taylor could be elected, and that another defeat would fol- 
low the nomination of his favorite, and that a change in 
the administration was necessary, he advocated the nomi- 
nation of General Taylor on the ground of availability only. 
The canvass was an exciting one, and marked perhaps by 
more of personal acrimony in Georgia than in any other 
State of the Union. Stephens entered into the canvass 
with great zeal and ardor; in it he "won his spurs," and 
took his place among the knights of the political arena. 

The General Assembly of 1849-50, in either branch, was 
unusually distinguished for talent and ability. The roll of 
the Senate was illustrated by the names of Andrew J. Mil- 
ler, Joseph PI Brown, Richard H, Clark, Charles Murphy, 



94 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

David J. Baily, John Jones, Edward D. Chisolm, William 
W. Clayton and others; in the House were A. H. Kenan, 
J. N. Ramsey, R. P. Trippe, L. J. Gartrell, J. A. Jones, 
A. C. Walker, W. T. Wofford, A. T. Mclntyre, Y. L. G. 
Harris, Alex. McDougald, T. C. Howard, A. J. Lane, and 
others, then or since distinguished in the history of the 
State. Conspicuous among the foremost in the bright gal- 
axy was Linton Stephens. When he rose to speak, no 
person commanded more considerate and respectful atten- 
tion, and none better repaid it. An assiduous course of 
mental discipline had made him master of his faculties ; he 
could call up to his aid, at any moment, all his resources of 
knowledge, logic, illustration, wit, satire — indeed, every 
weapon of his intellectual armory he kept bright, polished 
and ever ready for use ; and, like the sword of Fitz James, 
the weapon employed was equally formidable for assault 
or defense. It was this power — conjoined with an emo- 
tional nature and earnest convictions, anirfiated by the in- 
spiration which deep feeling can alone breathe into spoken 
thought — that made Charles James Fox the most accom- 
plished debater that ever appeared upon the theater of public 
affairs in any age of the world. There are many features 
of mental and cordal resemblance between Stephens and 
Fox. In one respect, there was no similitude ; Stephens 
did }wt "speak to every question." 

[From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

Washington, D. C, January 2, 1850. 

Dear Brother — I send you with 

this a copy of the address drawn up by a committee from 
the Memphis Convention. Read it. Mills, whose name 
is to it, is that same Charles C. Mills, of whom you have 
heard me speak, and who, at one time in my life, gave an 
important turn to my destiny. He is now here. He has 
entertained- me with strange incidents in his life. Amongst 
others, the other night, in speaking of the nearest distance 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 9$ 

to San Francisco, ho got off upon the idea of the nearest 
route from any two points on the same latitude, being on 
that hne of latitude. I told him it was not necessarily so, 
and attempted to explain by an apple on my table. He 
saw that, but thought it would not apply to so large a body 
as the earth ; and then went on to say that he had no 
doubt that just such a mistake occasioned the loss of the 
steamship, President, in 1841. He said he went to hairope 
in 1839, and had Captain Roberts, I believe it was, in com- 
mand ; that Captain Roberts told him the same thing, and 
that he thought he could go to Liverpool much nearer than 
the usually traveled route or course; that in 1841 he 
started to go to Europe again ; got to New York, went on 
board the President to start; there met the same Captain 
Roberts, who recognized him, and told him that he was go- 
ing to make the shortest trip ever made between this coun- 
try and England ; showed him the course he was going to 
run. Just before the ship started or sailed, he concluded 
not to go ; had his baggage put off; stood upon the wharf 
and saw the steamer leave the harbor amidst the shouts of 
thousands. The President has never been heard of since. 
He says the captain ran up into the icebergs to find a neai 
passage. But enough of this.* I was entertained at the in- 
cident in his life. I asked him what induced him to leave 
the ship. He said, nothing in the world, but a zvhini en- 
tered his mind that he could do his business as well by cor- 
respondence — though he had gone from Alabama to go 
out in that steamer and had got aboard. He had a large 
amount of cotton in Liverpool. You know that I am a 
believer in special Providence : hence this made an impres- 
sion upon my mind 



All who have visited "Liberty Hall" know Harry, the 
faithful body-servant of Mr. Stephens ; frequent visitors 
there know Eliza, his wife. Linton Stephens had in life 
no friends, white or black, more sincerely devoted to him, 
and few mourned him dead with deeper sorrow, than these 
faithful and devoted servants. The subjoined letter relates 
to the marriage of the couple. Shortly after the event, Mr. 
Stephens purchased Harry. 



96 BIOGKAPHICAI- SKETCH OF 

[ From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

Washington, D. C, March 14, 1850. 

Dear Brother — In my letter written at the House to- 
day, I forgot to reply to the request of Googer's Harry to 
take Eliza for his wife. Say to him that I have no objec- 
tion. And tell Eliza to go to Solomon & Henry's and get 
her a wedding dress, including a pair of fine shoes, etc., 
and to have a decent wedding of it. Let them cook a sup- 
per, and have such of their friends as they wish. Tell them 
to get some "parson man " and be married like "Christian 
folks." Let the wedding come off some time when you are 
at home, so that you may keep order amongst them. Buy 
a pig, and let them have a good supper. Let Eliza bake 
some pound-cake, and set a good wedding-supper. 
Yours, affectionately, 

Alexander H. Stephens. 

[From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

Washington, D. C, March 23, 1850. 

Dear Brother — Your two letters of the i8th instant 
(one enclosing copy of your expose) were received last 
night. In a letter I wrote to you yesterday, I gave you 
my views upon that matter. I think the piece well written. 
Indeed, to tell you the truth, it is better written than I 
thought you capable of, if you will pardon this awkward 
expression. A little more concentration would have made 
it a poiverful paper. I noticed in the Southern Recorder, at 
the time of the disorganization, a short statement by some 
anonymous writer, which struck me with its force and vim. 
But it lacked the substance. It was the mere thunder with- 
out the lightning. If your argument had been clothed up 
in the same style, or hurled forth with the same energy, it 
would have been a paper of unusual ability. In reference 
to Mr. Toombs' opinion, I will barely say, that the day 
after I read the piece, I casually, or "artfully," if you 
please, asked if he had seen the "Whig exposition, or the 
address of the members of our Legislature in justification 
of their course in withdrawing from the House." He re- 
plied that he had, and it was a fine paper, or some words 
of that import. I told him that I had received a letter 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 97 

from you stating that you had written it. He replied, 
' ' Ah, indeed ! Well, it is a good paper ; I was struck with it, 
and well pleased with it." This is about the substance of 
his remarks. Jones has not published it, and I doubt if he 
noticed it in the Recorder, for I did not; I saw it in the 

Jouinial. 

I fear we shall have some weeks now of cold weather. 
It keeps me in-doors. As to my health, I am in statu quo — 
perfectly well, except that disease which Alfriend calls urti- 
caria, and which Hall calls cxana, and which I call the 
mange. I feel about as I did yesterday after taking a sul- 
phur vapor bath. The itching is not as aggravating as it 
has been. 

[From A. II. S. to L. S. ] 

Washington, D. C, April 15, 1850. 

Dear Brother — I send you to-day two slips from the 
Baltimore Siin — one giving an account of a fire in our vi- 
cinity yesterday, and the other giving an account of the 
flare-up in the court here Saturday. It was quite a scene, 
I understand. I am a May man in the controversy. This 
is the third or fourth time, I hear, the court has undertaken 
to set aside verdicts rendered in his favor, on in favor of his 
clients, when the grounds were not thought by impartial 
judges to be sufficient. On Saturday, he gave the court a 
raking which they will never forget, and perhaps if he had 
given them a slight touch of the same character before, he 
might have been spared the unpleasant duty of laying on 
so hard at this late date. I detest a court that acts partially, 
or from prejudice, on the bench. May is a young man — 
Bradley is of long standing. May is struggling his way up 
against adverse fortunes; Bradley is at the head of the 
''elite.'' May stood it as long as he could, and when he 
did break loose he hurled his thunders with the potency of 
a young Jove. Now, in my opinion, no court ought to 
allow any lawyer to make such a remark at the bar, as 
Bradley did, about the verdict of a jury, without a repri- 
mand. A jury may act wrongly — they may act foolishly — 
they may render an absurd verdict; but it is rare they act 
corruptly: and they should be treated with respect. 

The House adjourned to-day immediately after meeting. 
The death of Campbell, the Clerk, was announced by the 
10 



98 BIOGRAPHICAL SKEl'CH OF 

Speaker. Gentry then made some remarks, accompanied 
with resolutions, and the House adjourned. What is to be 
done, touching the election of a successor, I have no idea. 
I remained in the Hall but a few minutes, and interchanged 
views with nobody upon the subject. I expect we shall 
have a renewal of the scenes we had at the organization — 
that is, we shall probably ballot or vote several days before 
an election is made. Steele, formerly of Milledgeville, was 
Campbell's Chief Clerk, and I suppose he will act in the 
interim. I feel less interest in politics than I ever did in my 
life. I don't think, if I should live many a year to come, 
that I should ever again feel any deep interest in the suc- 
cess of any ticket upon mere party considerations. The 
principles in issue, and not the men before me combined, 
shall always hereafter control my vote upon all elections. 
All parties are corrupt, and all party organizations are kept 
up by bad men for corrupt purposes. I shall hereafter 
treat all alike. I am out of party. I have been very much 
pained lately at seeing the course of men that I once thought 
so well of, and for whose elevation to office I strove so 
hard. My only consolation is the consciousness of the in- 
tegrity of my motives. I was for good government; I 
looked to nothing but the common good and prosperity of 
the country. I was green enough to suppose that there 
was such a thing as disinterested patriotism. I thought 
those to whom I have alluded were actuated by that prin- 
ciple. I find I was mistaken, and I feel mortified at my 
disappointment; but I bear my mortification as I do a 
bruise or a sprain I sometimes get by my own negligence 
or blunder. I shall endeavor to avoid such accidents for 

the future. The men to whom I now allude are P 

and . These men, I think, I had put in the cab- 
inet; I know I contributed to it; I am inclined to think 
that the responsibility rests upon me ; and I would not 
have you understand me as saying anything against them, 
farther than that I have been disappointed in the course of 

policy they pursue. is clever, friendly, honest, 

and free, I think, from all intrigue, but he is wholly unfit 
for his present place. He takes no interest in public affairs. 
He consults nobody as to the propriety of his appointments ; 
he makes great blunders in these. He has formed no ac- 
quaintance with members of Congress, has no complacency 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 99 

of manner, but is rigid, grum and austere in his intercourse. 
He manifests no concern in what is done in cabinet, or in 
the public poHcy of the administration. He has none of 
the elements of a statesman about him. And as for 

P , I am much worse disappointed in him ; for I find 

he is a scheming, intriguing politician. He was elated and 
transformed by his mere position. He was put into a new 
and higher sphere ; with this change, "a change came over 
the spirit of his dreams." He is not the man now that he 
was two years ago — his opinions have changed — his views 
are different. He was then looking to his district ; he is 
now looking to the ^\'ide horizon of the whole country — not 
to what will contribute to the peace, quiet, honor, renown, 
and prosperity of all, but to the miserable, petty party feel- 
ings and prejudices of the different sections, and not even 
with the view of correcting these, but with the purpose of 
courting popular applause by pandering to popular favor 
and feeling. He is a theorist and an enthusiast. He takes 
up an idea and adheres to it with the pertinacity of a dog- 
matist. He has done more to ruin this administration, I 
think, than all the other members of the cabinet together. 
He has Taylor s confidence; he has more influence with him 
than any other man. C Taylor is pure and honest; his im- 
pulses are right, but he suffers his own judgment to be 
controlled by that of others, and by no one so much as 

P . The blunder he made was in suffering himself to 

be influenced and duped by Seward. I allude to P 

now. I have no doubt an alliance was formed between 
them before Congress met. The extent of the implied 
7nidcrstandi)ig, to call it nothing else, I do not know; but 
the anti-slavery men of the North were to be brought to 
the support of Taylor by Seward — not by the surrender of 
the sentiment, but by making Taylor the head of the party — 
not as an abolitionist, but as a liberal man of the South, 
opposed to the extension of slavery, and willing for the 
majority of the North to carry out any measure they might 
think proper. The Whig party, in other words, was to 
absorb the Free-soil party at the North, and become the 
great Anti-slavery party of the nineteenth century. The 
Democrats of the North would be put down by their affil- 
iation with slavery — the whole North would be Whig — 
Taylor would be re-elected, and then Seward would sue- 



lOO BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

ceed, and a long list of successions doubtless loomed up in 
the opening vista. These are the illusions which, I think, 
broke upon the vision of the Secretary as he began to open 
his eyes after his transfer to his new sphere of action. In 
plain English, I believe he formed an alliance with the Free- 
soilers ; and I believe he is now exerting his utmost power, 
and all the influence of the government, to prevent an adjust- 
ment of the slave question upon the plan of Clay's resolutions, 
McClernand's bill and Webster's speech. I am not with him ; 
I am done with him ; I have no further use for him ; I have 
had no unpleasant words with him ; I have told him can- 
didly and distinctly, that his policy will ruin General Taylor. 
It will break down the administration North and South. 
It will leave him with a smaller party than Tyler had. I 

have been for months doing all I could to get P to 

look at this rpatter rightly. I never gave him up as hope- 
less till last week; and I will here remark, that, if you re- 
member last fall when I first came here, I told you Taylor, 
in my opinion, would sign the proviso. You may now 
understand why I thought so. That point alone wduld not 
have caused me to break with the Whig party, but I soon 
saw that the expectation was that Winthrop was to be 
elected by a coalition of the Southern Whigs with the Free- 
soilers, and the Whig party was to be the Anti-slavery 
party. Against that I kicked — I detested the idea. I 
would not act for a moment with a party that had the re- 
motest hope of accomplishing such a result by my co-op- 
eration with them. We made a point upon the Whigs ; we 
got up a great row ; we shook the country from one end to 
the other. The disorganization of the House aroused pub- 
lic sentiment; the feeling of the North began to give way; 
we soon learned that the proviso would be vetoed, if passed ; 
of this I informed you. But the storm was then up, and 
it could not be calmed. The Northern Whigs, feeling the 
great pressure from home, and fearing they would be com- 
pelled to yield their sentiments, and come to a full and final 
settlement of the question, caved in and let Cobb be elected 
Speaker. Mr. Clay, who came here a Wilmot-Proviso man, 
seeing the state of feeling, seized upon the occasion and 
brought forward his compromise ; Webster followed, and 
twenty Northern Whigs, perhaps forty, in the House, were 
ready to follow, and settle the whole question. But P , 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. lOI 

(jealous of Clay, and not willing that his movement should 
succeed — that is, that territorial bills without the proviso 
should pass, which would always be as good as Clay's com- 
promise,) set his head against it. I worked with him, hoping 
he would yield, but he set all his powers against it, and has 
got General Taylor dead against it; and, if we carry General 
McClernand's bill, we shall do it over and against the whole 
power of the government, and the Whig party will be de- 
funct. Now, you see why I say I am disappointed in P . 

As for , he is with us in this matter, but he is not 

worth a stiver, or he never would have let P got so 

wrong himself before we came here, and he never would 
have let him got such unlimited control of Taylor. He 
never would have suffered the whole patronage of the 
government at the North to go, as it has gone, to sustain 
the Free-soilers and Seward men. But enough. Good-bye. 
Yours, affectionately, 

A. H. Stephens. 

[From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

Washington, D. C, April 19, 1850, 

Dear Brother — To be present and 

hear continuous debates for four hours — to watch every 
turn that even a word or an expression may give to the 
winding current of great national events which will soon be 
historical — is a source of peculiar gratification ; but to rise 
in the morning after, and see the whole spread out in a 
broad sheet for dissemination to the remotest parts of the 
world, is a matter which excites, or should excite, some- 
thing higher than gratification. It is true, we have got so 
used to it that we think no more of it than the air we breathe ; 
and perhaps the same may be said of them at a distance, 
who are mostly benefited by it. What a wonder would 
such a state of things have been in England one hundred 
years ago ! The first debates of Parliament, I believe, that 
were ever published were written by Dr. Johnson, and pub- 
lished in the Gentleman s Magazine in 1740. He barely got 
notes of the speeches in the gallery, and wrote them out in 
his garret. I have been entertained lately in reading some 
of these debates. Johnson did not give the names of the 
speakers. The whole was kept up as a fictitious report of 



I02 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

proceedings in the legislative councils of the Island of Lilli- 
put. The questions were stated with such an analogy that 
no one could mistake the caricature, and tliey were read 
with avidity all over England. 

That was the commencement of Parliamentary reports; 
and it is a striking fact that the great speech of Pitt, that 
overthrew the Walpole Ministry in 1740, which is treasured 
up as one of the brightest ornaments of British eloquence, 
was written by Johnson in his garret, and never seen by 
him, who was afterwards Earl of Chatham — I mean it was 
never seen by him until after it w^as published. Johnson 
disclosed this fact himself, and in rather an interesting and 
interested way. The speech was highly lauded at a table 
where Johnson and others were. The old rascal could not 
act the part of Junius and remain sub umbra, but his vanity 
was so great that he said : "I wrote that speech in a gar- 
ret. " This was some years after its publication, and it led 
to a disclosure that the whole debates at that period were 
written by Johnson, as above stated ; and the old Tory-dog 
said he always took care that the Whigs should not get the 
better of the argument. But he missed it in Pitt's speech ; 
for whatever he might have thought, the people were of the 
opinion that Pitt carried his point. Perhaps Johnson was 
partial to him, individually. But now, if you please, just 
think for a moment what we and our ancestors were as late 
as one hundred years ago, and what we and they are now — 
I mean what the people of this country and England, from 
whom they sprang, were one hundred years ago, and what 
both peoples are now, in commerce, trade, facility of travel, 
transmission of intelligence, and everything that marks and 
distinguishes civilization from barbarism ! Why, just in 
this thing of printing, I suppose I am within the bounds of 
truth when I say that, in one night after the adjournment 
of Congress, before the morning session begins, the Globe- 
office will throw off more printed matter than all London 
could have done, one hundred years ago, in one month. It 
is astonishing to step into that office and see the magic 
genius at work ! The ideas and thoughts of men, as uttered 
on the respective floors of the two Houses of Congress, are 
caught in their airy sounds and fixed in strange marks or 
ciphers ; then transformed into English manuscript ; then 
handed to divers compositors, who transform them into a 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. IO3 

new language of types, which are bound fast and then put 
under steam, which throws off five or six hundred impres- 
sions while one hand would be copying a few sentences, 
and in a few hours, fifty or a hundred thousand, as the de- 
mand requires, are ready for delivery. The steam-engine 
is a wonderful invention. We are in the habit of paying 
this compliment to it when we think of its power on the 
railroad, the river and the ocean ; but when I have lately 
noticed its wonderful agency in the diffusion of news and 
intelligence by the press, I am disposed to think that its 
real powers are as strikingly observable there as when driv- 
ing the iron-horse at his most powerful speed, or forcing 
the massive ship against the elements of wind and water. 
But what is this compared to the telegraph ? It may seem 
strange to us to be told that one printing-office can to-day 
do more work in twelve hours than any one in London 
could have done in one w'hole month a hundred years ago ; 
but how small a matter is that, in contrasting the present 
with the past, when we realize the fact, that now we can 
send, in ten minutes, intelligence from Maine to Louisiana, 
a distance of two thousand miles, which, one hundred years 
ago, would have required almost a month by the swiftest 
couriers known, with relays arranged previously for the 
purpose. We are certainly making great and rapid strides 
in making the laws of nature subservient to the uses and 
purposes of man ; and in this, I think, consists all useful 
knowledge and science. Whoever contributes a new idea 
on this subject is a pioneer in knowledge; and whoever de- 
vises or contrives any scheme, by which any of the ele 
ments about us can be turned into a useful purpose, is a 
benefactor of his race. Science — true science — is nothing 
but the knowledge of the laws of nature, and is useful only 
in so far as it enables mind to get the mastery of matter. 
Now, what shall we be one hundred years to come? This 
is a most interesting question. Shall we go on, or shall we 
retrograde? This depends, in my opinion, very much upon 
the course of political events. Politics and government, in 
my opinion, have in the main, since the formation of hu- 
man society, been at w^ar with the best interests of man. 
Government, place and power have always been the prize 
which those have sought and struggled for, who have strong 
passions and mean propensities — those in whom the ani- 



104 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

mal and brutal qualities of our nature triumph over the re- 
fined and intellectual. Hence, those who contend for the 
prize of government resort to all sorts of means to arouse 
the worst and basest animal passions of the low and vulgar, 
to get them, as ministering devils or demons, to accomplish 
their purposes. The good of the people — the elevation, or 
even comfort, to say nothing of the happiness, of the masses 
of mankind — seldom enter into the minds of those who am- 
bitiously aspire to rule. They look upon the low, the igno- 
rant and the humble as fit only to be the tools of their am- 
bition. This, I think, the history of the world shows. Hence, 
in the records of the past, we read of little but the wars of 
kings and princes, the intrigues of courts, and the change 
of dynasties ; and hence, the history of our race, as we find 
it in books, is but a melancholy record of blood and carn- 
age. There is very little consolatory, much less useful, 
knowledge to be gleaned from it. What a great pity the 
majority of mankind cannot see their error ! The only his- 
tory of the world, that the great mass of men have any in- 
terest in, is that which gives them the beginning, the origin, 
the progress, and advancement of the useful arts and sci- 
ences. The authors of these have been the real benefactors 
of mankind. From this list, it is true, I would not exclude 
a few of the statesmen who have, at long intervals, dotted 
the annals of the past — men who breasted the storm of tyr- 
anny, and upheld, with heroic virtue, the standard of truth 
and the rights of their fellows. 

But if I were to write a history, ancient or modern, I should 
allow the name of no mere politician and trickster, who 
pandered to the baser passions for power, to have a place 
therein — unless it were to hold it up for scorn and hatred — 
as some more daring pirate that might figure at a particular 
time. My word for it, politicians are enemies of mankind. 
I speak of them as a class. They corrupt, debase and de- 
grade the people, instead of improving, elevating and fitting 
them, as they should, for further advancement in knowl- 
edge, refinement and civilization. All the influences of 
government, therefore, are at war with the improvements 
of the age. These have sprung up in time of peace in spite 
of opposing influences. They are the fruits of an active, 
inquiring, untrammelcd intellect. For free inquiry, we may 
be said to be indebted to government. That may be true 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. IO5 

in one sense, but not in the sense in which I speak of gov- 
ernment; for this very hberahty of government was never 
conceded until extorted by the people, whose interests were 
at war with the real principles of most governments. Free 
inquiry, freedom of debate and opinion, were never the fos- 
ter-offspring of unlimited government ; and the only hope I 
have for the future is in the virtue of the great mass of the 
people, in our own country particularly, in resisting the temp- 
tations of those who would deceive, cheat, degrade and de- 
stroy them for their own individual, political purposes. I 
am beginning to suspect and to detest all political parties, 
clubs and combinations. I look upon them as dangerous 
to the great and permanent interests of the people. The 
people, in government, should have but one object, and 
that object — good laws — I might add, with a faithful exe- 
cution of them. It is a matter of no sort of consequence 
with them who may make them, or who may execute them, 
provided their agents in their behalf be honest, capable and 
faithful. Integrity is the most essential requisite in a public 
officer. 

But I am wandering from my question. What shall the 
people of this country be one hundred years to come? 
Have they now reached the viaxinmin of discovery and im- 
provement allotted to men, #r shall future efforts of genius 
elevate them to new and unexplored regions of science? 
Shall a wider horizon, and even new spheres, yet be opened 
to their visions? Shall their progress still be onward? 
Shall those who fill our places a century hereafter contrast 
their condition with ours, as I now contrast ours with that 
of our ancestors in the days of Pitt? This, in my opinion, 
depends upon the government — and the government de- 
pends upon the virtue, intelligence and patriotism of the 
people. If the people are true to themselves, our progress 
shall be onward and upward. If we remain at peace with 
ourselves, and cultivate the arts of peace, a bright and glo- 
rious future is before us; but if demagogues triumph — if 
civil strife is once ripened into civil war — our course will 
soon be ended, and we shall add another chapter to the 
great Book of Chronicles, in which are registered the deeds 
of warriors, the glory of battle-fields, the wily tricks of cour- 
tiers and courtezans, and the splendid /fA'.y of emperors and 
kines 



I06 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

The year 1850 is memorable in the annals of the United 
States for the passage by Congress of the "Compromise 
Measures" — so-called — which led to the first serious disrup- 
tion of old party-ties, upon purely sectional issues. Mr. 
Stephens joined in with the friends of those measures, and 
supported the action of Congress and Government in giv- 
ing, as it was then hoped for, a finality to agitation in the 
Federal Councils, upon the subject of African slavery. He 
saw nothing in those measures to endanger the safety of the 
South or Southern institutions. He was one of the founders 
of what was known in Georgia as the ' ' Constitutional Union 
Party," which swept the State by a very large popular ma- 
jority in the selection of delegates to the Convention of 
1850, and which framed the celebrated "Georgia Plat- 
form " of that year. 

In 185 I, Mr. Stephens warmly supported the election of 
Howell Cobb, the nominee of the Constitutional Union 
party for Governor, against Charles J. McDonald, the nomi- 
nee of the Southern Rights, or Resistance party. Gov- 
ernor Cobb was elected by a Jarger majority of votes than 
any candidate for that office had up to that time received. 

In the Presidential campaign of 1852, both the great Na- 
tional parties accepted in their platforms the principles 
of adjustment set forth in the compromise measures of 
1850. General Pierce, the nominee of the Democratic 
party, in his letter of acceptance, unequivocally indorsed 
those measures in letter and spirit ; General Scott, the nomi- 
nee of the Whig party, in his letter of acceptance, did not; 
he accepted the nomination ami cneir. Southern Whigs, 
who were dissatisfied with the position of General Scott, 
and who could not exactly approve all the doctrines laid 
down in the Democratic platform, brought forward for the 
Presidency, Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts, and for the 
Vice-Presidency, Charles J. Jenkins, of Georgia. Promi- 
nent among the leaders of this movement were Toombs, 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 10/ 

A. ri. Stephens, Brooke, of Mississippi, Gentry, of Ten- 
nessee, etc. Linton Stephens supported the Webster-Jen- 
kins ticket. The death of Mr. Webster, a few days before 
the election, frustrated their hopes, if, indeed, any that were 
sanguine of success ever existed. 

Among the visitors at Milledgeville, during the sessions 
of the Legislature of 185 1-2, was a lady with whom this 
sketch has interesting relation. She was a young, accom- 
plished, blooming widow — Mrs. Emmeline Bell, daughter of 
the Hon. James Thomas, of Hancock — " a gentleman of the 
old school," a large and successful planter, and an able law- 
yer. He presided with ability and acceptance as Judge 
over the Superior Courts of the Northern Circuit for several 
years. The daughter, richly endowed with all the gentle 
attractions of her sex — modest, amiable, affectionate, intel- 
lectual — made an easy conquest of the legislator's heart — a 
heart, hitherto, not overly susceptible to female charms. 
The result was the solemnization of their nuptials in Jan- 
uary, 1852, at the residence of the bride's father, amid a 
large throng of delighted relatives and friends. 

This congenial alliance was one of the many felicitous for- 
tunes in Mr. Stephens' life. Nothing can be more beauti- 
ful than the pure, ardent, reciprocal affection which charac- 
terized and illustrated their conjugal relations : she idolized 
him, while his devotion to her "glowed with an ardor that 
might almost be called romantic." 

Shortly after the marriage, Mr. Stephens became a citizen 
of Hancock, and opened a law office in the village of Sparta. 
He formed a partnership in the practice with Colonel Rich- 
ard M. Johnston — one of his earliest and most cherished 
friends. Certainly, the unbounded confidence indicated by 
a correspondence, which covers many years, discloses a rare 
degree of mutual personal attachment. Their professional 
relationship was kept up until Colonel Johnston accepted 



I08 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

the Professorship of BeUes-Lettres and Oratory, in the Uni- 
versity of Georgia, in 1857. 

Mr. Stephens determined to devote himself exclusively 
to the business of his profession after his removal to Sparta. 
He took his place at once at the head of a Bar, distin- 
guished, perhaps, before any other in the State for juridical 
ability and forensic power. Toombs, A. H. Stephens, Cone, 
Dawson, Meriwether, Johnson, Saffold, Sayre, Thomas, 
Cobb, Reese, Foster, Billups, Hill, Miller, Kenan, Harris, 
Pottle, King, Lewis, are some of the names that imparted 
celebrity and illustration to the courts of Middle Georgia 
at that day; and he was abreast with any of these, in the 
forum, whether standing before the Judge, or the Twelve. 
Before entering into the law partnership with Johnston, 
their relations were those of the closest personal intimacy. 
They were congenial spirits. They frequently interchanged 
letters ; some of them will appear in these pages. The two 
following are characteristic of the men and illustrative of 
their personal relations: 

[L. S. to R. M. Johnston.] 

Crawfordville, February 25, 185 i. 

Dear Dick — Yesterday I received a letter from E. C. 
Williamson, (the doctor, I presume — is it not?) stating that 
you had informed him, you had turned over to me his case 
in Hancock, against B. R. Gardner, and requesting me to- 
make out interrogatories for Drs. Haynes, Smith and Stone, 
but not giving me one Christian name for either of these 
gentlemen of that learned fraternity. Nor does he state 
what sort of a case it is, farther than that his drift seems to 
be to prove that ^^ she was unsound." Now, whether 
" she" be a filly, a nigger gal or a Durham heifer, is to my 
mind res vexata. I, however, being a man much averse 
to extremes, incline to the (not golden, but ebon) mean, 
and planting myself upon a certain dignity of learning, 
which restrains its votaries from exercising its mysteries on 
the races afflicted with glanders and murrains, are enabled 
to pronounce with some confidence in favor of the nigger. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHKNS. IO9 

The shrewdest inferences I can draw, from remote and 
doubtful premises, have led me to the conclusion that Ed- 
ward, Kdmond or Erasmus C. Williamson now has pend- 
ing in Hancock Superior Coiirt, against B. R. (known to 
me as Burton R.) Gardner, an action for breach of war- 
ranty of soundness on the sale of a certain Jiiggcr gal. 
Acting upon the best lights before me, I have accordingly 
drawn up interrogatories for the three learned gentlemen, 
surnamed Hayes, Smith and Stone, leaving blanks to be 
filled by your superior knowledge, in such places where my 
own conjectures are wholly at fault, and particularly trust- 
ing that you will prefix to the learned witnesses those 
Christian appellations which are thought to preserve fame 
from confusion and error among the names of the great. I 
have thought, too, that the depositions of one Robert Max- 
well might not be amiss ; and, therefore, I have added a 
set of interrogatories for him, experiencing in his case 
many difficulties common to the cases of his more erudite 
compeers. In each set, you must be careful to supply Ed- 
ward, Edmund or Erasmus, (as the case may be) and to 
insert Dinah, Mahaly or Phillis, according to the truth of 
the matter. When all this has been done, will you then 
please have commissions attached and have them sent to 
the plaintiff? All that your information may not compass 
can doubtless be supplied by Erasmus himself; and when 
all this is done, why, then just sit down and write me how 
far I have missed the mark — what sort of case I have to 
deal with. If you have ever said one word to me about it, 

it has wholly slipped my memory 

Yours, truly, 

Linton Stephens. 

[L. S. to R. M. Johnston.] 

Crawfordville, May 12, 185 1. 

Dear Dick — When I got your letter, stating you had not 
fixed the day for your examination, but would fix it about 
the first of June, I thought of requesting you not to have 
it earlier than the fourth, in order to allow me to attend our 
Superior Court here on the 28th, and go over on the 30th. 
I have concluded, however, that it might give you some in- 
convenience; and in case your appointment should conflict 



IIO BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

with the aforesaid court, I could leave my business with 
John and go over anyhow. At that time, however, I had 
but one case (trover for a negro) of much importance in the 
Superior Court, and on that^ case I knew there would be an 
appeal. Now, the case stands differently. To-day one 
fellow has instituted proceedings against another fellow for 
establishing the freedom of several of the last named fel- 
low's negroes. This same last named fellow has employed 
me to defend his rights, and the case is to be tried at our 
next Inferior Court — first Monday, and second day of June. 
It is a very important case, and I must stay and attend to 
it. If you have not, therefore, fixed the day of your ex- 
amination, and if a matter of a few days will work no par- 
ticular derangement of your plans, why, don't have it before 
the fifth of June, allowing me two days for court (and it 
may be possible that it will last that long) and one more 
day to go over. If you have fixed the day, or if compli- 
ance with my suggestion will incommode you in the least, 
why, to confess the truth, I should feel, in the escape from 
the rash promise I have made, a satisfaction almost equal 
to, and counter-poising the disappointment of not seeing 
you, and — but anon. Dick, this is a dilemma which I could 
not foresee, and I know you will perceive the obligation 
upon me. It gives me the less concern, too, because it can 
involve no serious disappointment to you or your patrons ; 
for speech or no speech, on the occasion, is just a matter as 
it may turn up — very well in its place, if it only be well 
placed, and not missed, if it only be not out of place. 
Write me forthwith and let me know whether I am to take 
the steam off my speech factory, or whether I shall pile on 
more fuel. The wear and tear of machinery is too consid- 
erable to be incurred for nothing. It would be like run- 
ning a saw-mill without stocks, or a grist-mill without grain. 
Give my love to all "enquiring friends," and remember 
me particularly to Mrs. Johnston. 

Yours, very truly, 

Linton Stephens. 

He made the speech, and had the "satisfaction" of see- 
ing "D'ck " and her, who was to be his wife. 

But Mr. Stephens was not allowed to gratify his own 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. Ill 

wishes by remaining in private life. The people of Hancock 
elected him to the State Senate in 1853. In the guberna- 
torial election of that year, he supported Hon. Charles J. 
Jenkins. It was the closest contest of the kind ever known 
in the State. Governor Herschel V. Johnson was elected 
by 5 10 majority out of a popular vote of about one hundred 
thousand cast. 

The resolution he offered in the Senate on the Nebraska 
question — and it was resolved on by himself before he had 
consulted any one — foreshadowed the position he occupied, 
subsequently, when the principles asserted in the Kansas- 
Nebraska Bill were absorbing issues in the politics of the 
country. 

On the 1 8th of December, 1853, he writes to his brother 
from Milledeeville: 



" Cooley's speech, which you said in a letter I got several 
days ago you had sent me, has just come to hand to-day. 
I have read it through. He's a pretty Judge, isn't he? It 
is a right strong speech, but the author of it is as bad as 
Brownlow. These Northern fellows are a nice set ; but to say 
the truth, we are all — North and South — a nice set. Cooley 
seems to talk like an honest man who meant something, 
and the excuse for his epithets is to be charged, I suppose, 
to the account of provocation. This is a most rascally ad- 
ministration, beyond all doubt. Cobb is here, McDonald is 
here, Warner is here, and Jack Jones is here. What it all 
means is yet to be seen. Our Democratic allies, on the 
question of bringing on the election of United States Sen- 
ator, all are fiiin, they say — they tell our people so, and I 
think they are in earnest. It is said here that Cobb has 
doionjiccd them. It is also said that he is to address the 
Democracy to-morrow night. Cobb has been asked what 
brought him here: he said he came here to get two bills 
passed — one giving the election of town marshal to the peo- 
ple, and another creating a new county around Athens, with 
Athens as county site. 



112 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, February 24, 1854. 

Dear Brother — I have seen a report of your speech in 
the Hanld, and a short synopsis of it in the Chronicle and 
Sentinel, taken from the Intelligeneer. I was much pleased 
with it, and I was particularly pleased to see that you put 
yourself on the same ground which I had taken before. 

Hovr do you like my Nebraska resolution, which I intro- 
duced into the Legislature? I suppose you have seen it 
before now in the papers. It was in these words: " Re- 
solved, etc., That opposition to the principles of the Ne- 
braska Bill, in relation to the subject of slavery, is regarded 
by the people of Georgia as hostility to the rights of the 
South, and that all persons who partake in such opposition 
are unfit to be recognized as component parts of any party 
not hostile to the South." It passed unanimously; but not- 
withstanding that, I called the yeas and nays. Stell, the 
President, asked leave to vote, and he stands recorded 
among the yeas. It also passed the House unanimously, 
but the yeas and nays were not called there. I voted 
against Cochran's resolutions on Nebraska (which you have 
doubtless seen) for several reasons: In the first place, be- 
cause there was no substantive idea in them, unless they 
meant to assert that our confidence "in the great body of 
the North" had been greatly strengthened by the fact that 
the Nebraska Bill had been introduced mto Congress — a dec- 
laration which I was not prepared to make. To make such 
a declaration would require a little too much of that spirit 
which expresses great thanks for very small favors. When 
the "great body of the North" vote for the bill, then I 
may feel that I can give the great body of the North a vote 
of confidence, but not until then. In the next place, I 
looked upon the resolution as a hobbling attempt to bolster 
up the administration. In the third place, it asserted the 
right of instruction. There was no chance to debate it, for 
they put the previous question on it at the first hop ; our 
men generally voted for it; indeed, there were only five 
nays in the Senate and none in the House. I have seen a 
statement in several papers that it passed both branches 
unanimously. That is a mistake. The yeas and nays were 
taken in the Senate, and five nays stand recorded against it. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. I I 3 

I don't think the administration can take much comfort 
from it in connection with mine. Do you ? Nor do I think 
our Southern rights, fire-eating contemporaries can take 
much comfort from it for themselves. Don't you think that 
they have clearly and unequivocally voted that their own 
conduct and positions, in 1850-51, were "hostile" to the 
rights of the South, and that they themselves, upon the 
measures of past merit, are "unfit" to be recognized as 
component parts of any party which is not "hostile " to the 
South ? What will men do ! I offered another resolution, 
declaring that the measures of 1850 were "wise, liberal and 
just," etc., but some of our own friends were tender on that 

point, and I did not press it to a vote. Our friend 

would have been in some trouble — not more, to be sure, 
than from the one which was passed ; but still some did not 
seem to see it in that same light. Indeed, the Democracy 
never suspected, for an instant, that my Nebraska resolution, 
contained anything that could be construed into a reflection 
upon their own past course, nor upon the purity and pro- 
priety of their present alliance 

The life of no professional man is more barren of inci- 
dents of general interest than that of the lawyer ; for it is a 
short radius that sweeps in judges, juries and clients only. 
The year 1854 found Mr. Stephens diligently engaged in 
the practice of his profession ; and as his reputation grew 
and spread, the emoluments he reaped were 'large and rich. 
The letters following relate to his domestic life and pursuits, 
and bring out to view some of the gentler and more amiable 
features of his character : 

[ From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, June 28, 1854. 

Dear Brother — I had heard 

of the death of poor cousin Sabra before I got your letter 
announcing it. John Stewart (Billy Harrison's son-in-law) 
was over here and told me of it. I have known her so long 
and well — have spent so many cheerful, happy moments in 
her company — that her image mingles, at almost every turn 
1 1 * 



I 14 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

and corner, with all the many other figures that flit in 
throngs, varying and changing through ^11 the scenes which 
memory wakes. To strike out her existence from the face 
of the earth — I cannot realize it! It seems strange and in- 
credible to me that it should be so ! Her days had not 
been very many, and yet they had indeed been full of 
trouble. She bore a cheerful spirit through every trial, and 
evinced in every emergency more of the spirit of true phi- 
losophy than anybody I ever knew, who was a woman, and 
had no ereater share of intellectual endowment 



[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta. June 29, 1854. 

Dear Brother — Before 

getting your letter, I had mailed one to you, in which I had 
'spoken of the same subject in a manner which struck me 
as bearing a singular resemblance to the train of thought 
suggested to you by the same occasion. Since I have heard 
of her death, she is constantly in my thoughts, awaking as- 
sociations with brother, with Billy, and with my school-boy 
days, that have not been so vividly presented to my mem- 
ory in many years. It all impresses me painfiilly with a 
sense of how they have passed away forever from earth, and 
how we are 7-apidly passing away likewise. Life, with its 
longest continuance, with all its joys, with all its sorrows, 
with all its associations, with thousands of other existences, 
seems but a flash — blazing but for an instant, and then sink- 
ing again into impenetrable darkness — a mere point, un- 
marked, in the vastness of that immeasurable Eternity which 
lies behind it and before it 



, The succeeding letter was written on occasion of the 
death of an infant but a few months old. He was devotedly 
attached to all his children, as this narrative will abundantly 
show ; but his yearning tenderness seemed ever to run out 
most fondly for the latest-born, because the youngest and 
most helpless. It was but the exemplification, in another 
form, of one strong element of his nature: 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. I I 5 

[From L. S. to A. H. S.] 

Sparta, August 24, 1854. 

Dear Brother — The struggle is over, and little Kate is 
no more in life. She went out as quietly and beautifully as 
the day dies away into the twilight and darkness. She is 
lying robed in white, in her crib. They have .scattered 
flowers around her tiny form, and she holds a white rose- 
bud in one of her little hands. She seems to be in a .sweet 
sleep. I had not thought it possible for me to feel so 
keenly the death of one so young. Strange to say, she now 
has — as she never had struck me strongly as having before — 
a likeness to you. It was pointed oiit to me by Emm, and 
I had tJiougJit I had observed it before, but had not men- 
tioned it. She died at 6j4 o'clock this morning. She will 
dwell on my memory as she appeared in the beauty of 
health, but I shall not regret to mingle with that bright 
image the little pale, sweet face that now sleeps in its last 
mortal array. One comfort I have, even in this first burst 
of grief: I feel that, while I am deeply touched and smitten, 
I might have been desolated and blasted. Good-bye. 

Affectionately, Linton. 

Addison, of all the English fine writers of prose, was the 
favorite of Mr. Stephens. It was not the unequaled style 
of the author that attracted him only, but the soul and sen- 
timent that animate his pages as well. 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, January i, 1855. 

Dear Brother — Addi- 
son is to me, of all men, the most pious, rational and en- 
tertaining upon subjects of a religious bearing. Another 
very pretty, and to me novel, speculation of his is upon the 
subject of the Jews as a people. Ui:)on such subjects he is 
full of piety and free from superstition — so abounding in 
fine philosophy, and so exempt from fine-spun theories, so 
fruitful of profound suggestions, and so joyous in the health- 
ful hope of a cheerful spirit, that to read his religious spec- 
ulations is food equally for the reason, the imagination and 



Il6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

the heart. I know of no writings having so fine a tendency 
as his to cultivate a sound and cheerful piety. I don't won- 
der that the man had friends of so much devotion to him ; 
for he clearly possessed just that sort of sense, and flowing 
charitableness and pleasantry, which are so well qualified 
to inspire attachments amounting to personal devotion. 
But you don't agree with me about Addison ; and I verily 
believe it is because you are not acquainted with him. His 
fine veins are somewhat rare, but they are rich. A man 
may be able to say that he has read many of his pieces, and 
yet no man can appreciate him unless he has read them 
all 

The nomination of General Scott, in 1852, by the Na- 
tional Whig Convention, for the Presidency, disrupted the 
party. A majority, perhaps, of the Old-Line Whigs went 
into the Know- Nothing organization — or, as it was after- 
wards called, the American party — which loomed up so 
suddenly and so formidably in the summer and autumn of 
1854. The history of American politics furnishes no in- 
stance — with exception, perhaps, of the Anti-Masonic 
party in 1832 — of a political party, which sprang up with 
such surprising quickness, having such thorough organiza- 
tion, numerically so powerful, and whose existence was so 
ephemeral, as the Know-Nothing, or American party. It 
swept the country — North, and West, and East — with a 
tide of unbroken success, until the current was first rolled 
back and lashed into spray as it dashed against the Gibral- 
tar of the Virginian Democracy. Mr. Stephens was among 
its earliest opponents in Georgia. He, along with proba- 
bly twenty thousand Whigs in Georgia, locked shields with 
the Democrats to defeat it in 1855. 

[ From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, January 17, 1855. 

Dear Brother — The Know-Nothings 

here are holding up their heads high at the news from Phila- 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 11/ 

delphia about the adoption of the platform, and the seces- 
sion of the fifty-three Northern members. There is just 
one remark I have to make now in the hurry of the present 
moment, concerning that same platform, illustrating the 
great erulf between that and the fourth resolution of the 
Georgia platform : A man is about to strike me ; I announce 
to him that if he does, I shall shoot him. Another man, a 
by-stander, says to that man, he is ivrong to strike me, but 
says no more. He fails to say I will be right in resisting 
by shooting. Does that by-stander back my position ? By 
no means ; he condemns my adversary, it is true ; but he fails 
to justify me. He is silent as to the extent of the wrong, 
and as to the measure of resistance. This Philadelphia plat- 
form contains no fighting line. It announces a principle, 
but fails to announce at what hazard it ought to be main- 
tained, or what ought to be the consequences of its viola 
tion. It does not place anybody, North or South, upon a 
platform of resistance. It declares it is wrong for people 
to spit in our faces. You may not see the force of my criti- 
cism ; but I tell you, it is just, and I can make you com.pre- 
hend it when I see you. There was no fighting line, I know, 
in either of the late Baltimore platforms ; but its omission 
left an immeasurable distance between them and the Geor- 
gia platform. You may be inclined to suggest that a fight- 
ing National platform (one adopted by the people in all 
sections) would be inappropriate and out of place. I would 
not have the North to declare that they would themselves 
fight in our cause precisely, but I ivould have them affix a 
value to our rights by announcing a conviction that their 
violation would justify resistance and separation. Such a 
recognition would be of vast importance to us whenever the 
separation might come. Under it we would stand justified 
in dging what we have said at home we will do when the 
emergency arises 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, January i8, 1855. 

Dear Brother — Still no letter from you. What is the 
matter? I have had none from you since those I found on 
my return from Savannah last Saturday, now nearly a week 
ago. Have you made a speech and been busy writing it 



Il8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

out? If you have been taken up with that matter during 
the whole interval between your letters, you surely have 
been playing it a la Campbell — writing what you didn't 
speak. I observed that you had the floor for Friday ; but I 
found this morning that neither House of Congress sat on 
that day, in consequence of the death of Senator Norris. 
So, I suppose, you delivered your speech Saturday, unless 
that be, as I think it used to be, private-bill day. But 
what were you doing all the week before? Monday, the 
eighth, is the last date I have from you — ten days ago — or 
have you only been trying the virtue of that forbidden law, 
the lex talionis .^ or, in English words, giving me tit for tat? 
It is true, I did not write to you any time during my several 
days' absence at Savannah ; and it is also true, that just be- 
fore leaving home, I said I would write from Savannah ; but 
you would excuse the failure if you knew how poor the 
chance was there for writing with comfort or convenience. 
My interpretation of the whole thing throws the onus on 

the mails The Know-Nothings are a 

great power in the State just now — greater than you may 
have imagined in Georgia. They aim at an einl no doubt ; 
but they are on the opposite extreme. The result may be 
great good to the country; but the man who desires to do 
right, and to be found in the right always, would desire to 
be found on neither extreme, but on the ground of sound 
doctrine. Affectionately, Linton. 

The two next letters show his opinion of the celebrated 
speech of Mr. A. H. Stephens, in reply to that of Mr. L. 
D. Campbell, wherein the resources of Georgia and Ohio 
were contrasted. 

[ From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, January 24, 1855. 

Dear Brother — Henry 

has brought up my mail since our return, and, among other 
things, I got two copies of your late speech in reply to 
Campbell. Both copies are in the Globe, and came under 
your frank. I have already read more than half of your 
speech, but have laid it down in order to have a few lines 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. II9 

for you in the mail of to-day. I will write you what I 
think of the speech after I have read it all. I will, how- 
ever, give you notice now, after reading a part only, that I 
intend to perform a very friendly office towards it, accord- 
ing to your own estimate of what is friendly and useful 
cnticism — that is to say, I am going to find some fa? dt with 
it.. I will say, however, that as yet I have no faults ot 
matter to charge, but one or two purely of tnanner. The 
gravest one is more properly, yet a fault of taste. But for 
the present, you must be patient, and wait for the whole at 
once. I never did like to take a bad thing in broken doses, 
and in adinimsiering one, I will be equally considerate. . . 

[P^-om L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, January 24, 1855. 

Dear Brother — To-day I wrote you a letter, not very 
short or very long, which has gone, or ought to have gone, 
by to-day's mail. It is night now, and I have read over 
your speech twice — though, when I wrote to-day, I had 
read only a part once. I promised you to-day to do a 
friendly office for your speech by finding fault with it. I 
confess that my feeling of fault-finding was stronger then 
than it is now. From reading the whole speech, I more 
perfectly caught and appreciated the spirit of the whole, or 
I became more biased. But I still adhere to my original 
impression, that part of the speech is not in keeping with 
the best taste. That part which occurs early in the speech, 
and which alludes to your record as one that had not been 
made for an hour, or an electioneering campaign, but for 
all time, and by which you are willing to abide, living and 
dead, is somewhat Bentoiiaii in its tone, and, even consid- 
ered by itself, is to be regarded by good judges as out of 
taste. That, however, by itself, might be regarded, not 
only as free from blemish, but as a noble expression at once 
of defiance to your own generation, and of appeal to pos- 
terity ; but when you spoke of your ' ' tables " as something 
that would do "to keep," and that you meant " to keep" 
the likeness of "old Bullion," became too palpable to be 
quite agreeable to a delicate sense of modesty. But after 
reading the whole speech, I could not precisely find it in 
my heart to say that you had transcended the provocation. 



I20 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

Without commenting further upon the manner, which I 
took up first as being of the least importance, I proceed to 
speak of the matter; and upon that point, I suspect (from 
the speech itself) that you will be astonished when I say 
that it is the greatest speech you ever made, and a speech, 
marking more distinctly than any other in American his- 
tory, the commencement of a neiv era. I do not believe, 
from the speech itself, and from the manner in which you 
have put it up, that you regard it in the high light in which 
I hold it. Your speech in reply to Mace foreshadows, and 
this speech clearly and distinctly reveals, a nczv idea; and 
that is, the comparative effects of free and slave labor upon 
all the developments, and consequently upon the prosperity, 
of a country. I can truly say, that while to me your general 
idea is not a new one, yet, that your manner of illustrating 
it is wholly new, and very striking. Allow me to give you 
another idea which bears upon the philantJiropk view, and 
which, though obvious, has never been hinted at, by any- 
body whomsoever, within -my knowledge. The office per- 
formed by the African — menial services and manual labor — is 
one which, on universal confession, must be performed in 
every country by somebody : now, in the view of the philan- 
t/uopist, who looks to the interest of mankind, is there any 
difference between confining these offices to a class of men 
defined by blood, or diffusing them through a class marked 
hy poverty f The same amount of that kind of labor is nec- 
essary to be performed for a given community ; and is it 
any misfortune that it should all (even) be performed by 
the black man, unless there be sonu' superiority of the black 
man over the white? But, on the contrary, are there not 
several strong reasons for throwing it upon the black man 
rather than the white? I will allude only to the great line 
of demarkation arising out of color, and to the known su- 
perior docility of the black race. As a question of humanity, 
we inquire obviously into the numbers only, and not into 
the color, of those engaged in pursuits of inferior rank or 
dignity. This, in my opinion, is the genu of a new and un- 
touched view of slavery, as a social, and particularly as a 
humane institution. T could enlarge upon it to a great ex- 
tent; indeed, I have for a good while been thinking of pre- 
senting it, in some amplitude, in the shape of an article for 
some review. I only throw it out, however, as a thought 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 121 

to you, and as a most powerful forerunner and auxiliary to 
the train of thought pursued in your last speech. This 
idea of mine, when fully comprehended, reduces the whole 
discussion to two simple considerations — the effect of slavery 
upon the master in regard to physical, moral, and intel- 
lectual development and progress, and its effect upon the 
slave, or upon that class, which answers to the condition 
and offices of the slave, in the same particulars. Upon the 
latter branch of the inquiry, your argument beams with 
iiciv light and overwhelming power. The first branch you 
leave untouched. The views presented by you really per- 
tain to the most pmctical branch of the subject ; and they 
are likely to produce (in my judgment) most practical fruits 
upon the great Yankee nation, who are emphatically a 
practical, and money-making, and money-saving people. I 
merely throw out the hint. If you comprehend my full 
meaning, I think you may use it to great effect ; and nothing 
would give me greater pleasure than the reflection of hav- 
ing furnished you with a hint, which might be worked by 
you into an argument so magnificent and statesman-like, 
and which, thus treated, might result in fruits so grand and 
so just. But I will conclude with saying your speech, in 
view of its novelty and its probable effects, is the greatest 
and grandest of your life, and is not surpassed by any in 
American history. I am not extravagant — I may be mis- 
taken. 

Affectionately, Linton. 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, February 2, 1855. 

Dear Brother — I don't think you 

exactly caught the idea, which I intended to convey, con- 
cerning a certain view which would have put a finishing 
stone upon your speech. The natural adaptation of the 
negro race to slavery is the least part of it, and, indeed, 
hardly a part of it at all, though it does come directly in 
aid of it. I was in a great hurry when I wrote the last part 
of my critique upon your speech, and did not succeed, I 
imagine, in expressing precisely what I meant; and now I 
have just got a call, summoning me to town, and I must go, 
and must finish my letter before I go. I can now only say, 
12''= 



122 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

in the most general terms, that my idea was, that, as a 
question of liwnanity, it is obviously indifferent whether the 
services performed. for us by slaves be performed by white 
men, or black men, so far as the good of the greatest num- 
ber is concerned ; the only question is, the nature of the 
service, and the necessary number engaged in it. What is 
done by our negroes must be done by somebody, and the 
only real question, therefore, in point of humanity, is, whether 
anybody else could perform the same service and be in a 
better condition. If not, the tears of humanity are shed 
in vain over the woes of the negro, and ought to be shed 
over the imperfections of nature, which require men to 
perform such services. The abolitionist would simply 
substitute the white man in place of the black. He would 
not make the bed easier, but only give it a different occti- 
pant ; and humanity is concerned only at what befalls man 
as such, and not for the fate of one particular man, or class 
of men, rather than another, when the fate is inevitable to 
some man, or souw class 

Fanaticism is blind, and never stops to reason. It has no 
capacity to reason. "Menial services and manual labor" 
are, for the most part, still performed at the South by 
emancipated slaves, and with poorer reward than in ante- 
bellum days. 

Governor Herschel V. Johnson appointed Mr. Stephens 
counsel to represent the State of Georgia in the contro- 
versy with Alabama. The following letter relates to that 
subject: 

[ From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, February 7, 1855. 

Dear Brother — To-day I got your letter of the 3d in- 
stant, saying that Mr. Phillips had inquired of you about 
the Answer in the case of Alabama vs. Georgia. I sat 
down and drew about half of the Answer, but was inter- 
rupted, and have not since had a good opportunity to finish 
it. This week, I shall be obliged to attend to other mat- 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1 23 

ters ; but after that, I will finish it and get the signatures of 
the Governor, the Attorney-General, and of O. C. Gibson, 
my associate counsel, and send it to you to be filed. I 
shall not go to Washington this winter, but I want the An- 
swer filed 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, March 8, 1855. 

Dear Brother — I got your letter this morning, announc- 
ing the painful news of the death of Lou Toombs. The 
announcement did not greatly surprise me ; for it was not 
altogether unexpected ; and yet it shocked me. It fills me 
with a feeling too near akin to grief to be called by any 
other name. I almost loved her as a sister. She was so 
good, so intelligent, so artless, so innocently gay and cheer- 
ful of spirit, that it was impossible to know her well with- 
out being touched with a tender and most kindly regard for 
her. She had the blended virtues of her father and mother, 
and added a chaplet of gracefulness and quietness, all her 
own. Poor Lou! poor Lou! 

In 1855, Mr. Stephens was nominated, by the Demo- 
cratic and Anti-Know-Nothing party, for Congress, to rep- 
resent the Seventh District of the State. His repugnance 
to again entering the turbulent field of politics was pro- 
nounced and extreme. Indeed, he never had relish for that 
sort of life. There was a spell about home that he owned 
and loved ever; and now, all which lends to it most of at- 
traction and charm — wife, children, affluence, good neigh- 
borhood, the society of cherished friends, "the sweet hours 
of elegant leisure spent in the library" — were his in full 
fruition. He, however, yielded a reluctant consent to the 
wishes of the party, authoritatively expressed ; and after a 
heated canvass — albeit characterized by nothing of personal 
bitterness — his competitor, the late Nathaniel Greene Foster, 
was elected by a small majority. No one regretted the re- 
sult less than Mr. Stephens. He did not rejoice over his 
defeat, as it is related of the old Grecian patriot, when 



124 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

no shell bore his name for a seat in the Amphictyonic 
Council; but his purely personal feelings were far from 
being ruffled, or his hopes in the least disappointed. The 
satisfaction he derived from the re-election of Governor 
Johnson, whom, two years before, he had opposed on other 
issues, and the overthrow of the Know-Nothing party in 
Georgia, was ample compensation for any unrealized dreams 
of ambition his candidature may have inspired. 

In the Presidential race of 1856, Mr. Stephens supported, 
with his wonted ardor, the Buchanan-Breckinridge nomina- 
tion. He was a delegate to the Cincinnati Convention of 
that year, and was tendered a place upon the Electoral 
ticket. That position the exacting cares of a large and labo- 
rious practice compelled him to decline. He, nevertheless, 
rendered efficient service to the party with his tongue and 
his pen. 

I heard him relate, with great glee, an anecdote con- 
nected with the mission to Cincinnati, which I have never 
seen in print. The Georgia delegates to the nominating 
convention took Washington City in their way, and re- 
mained a day or so at the Federal City. Congress was in 
session. General Toombs, from Georgia, complimented 
the delegation with a dinner, inviting several other distin- 
guished Democrats. Many of the aspirants for nomination 
to the Presidency were present — invited guests. Late in 
the evening, when wit and wine had pretty well performed 
their office, and the company were about to disperse. Col- 
onel James Gardner, the Chairman of the Georgia Delega- 
tion, full of the kindliest feeling, filled his glass, and, sur- 
rounded by Cass, Douglas, Cobb, Toombs, Breckinridge, 
and others, who would not have declined a nomination, if 
tendered, offered as a toast : ' ' Gentlemen, may you all live 
to be President of the United States!" Douglas, standing 
close by Cobb, nudged him at the elbow and said: "Well, 
Cobb, here's a loiig- life to j'ouf" 



JUDGE UNTON STEPHENS. 125 

[From L. S. to A. H. S.] 

Sparta, June i8, 1856. 

Dear Brother — The Know- 

Nothings here look chap-fallen ; but they intend to fight. 
We are to have a meeting Saturday to send delegates to 
the Fourth-of-July Convention at Milledgeville, and I am 
to make them a speech. A speech on the right string, at 
this time — or rather, at that time — (for all the candidates 

will be out then) may do much good in this county. G 

told me that M and J had declared for Buchanan. 

I don't believe it; but he said so. The nomination is re- 
ceived well by our friends everywhere, so far as I know, or 
have heard. Jim Jones is raving like a madman. In his 
paper, which I got this morning, he invites all lovers of the 
country to avert the disgrace of electing Buchanan by 
mounting the "broad platform of Fillmore" — a platform 
consisting of the "leading principles" of another platform, 
(or the same,) which Jones, only a few weeks ago, pro- 
nounced unfit for a Southern latitude. ''Quern Detis vidt 
perdere,'" etc., is a maxim which gives me great comfort 
under present circumstances. I am glad that Stringfellow 
brings such good tidings from Kansas. The indications in- 
spire me with the hope that we shall make a complete rout 
of the enemy 

The year 1857 was the saddest in the life of Mr. Stephens. 
In January, his wife died. The event, for a time, quite 
unmanned him: he was prostrated by the blow. The 
insatiate archer's arrow penetrated his very soul, and pro- 
duced an anguish — an agony of grief — such as the tenderest 
hearts only can feel, and the stoutest withstand. For years 
succeeding, his letters are laden with expressions of sorrow 
for his loss — deep, boding, eloquent — and with testimonials 
of her worth, and tributes to her memory, of surpassing 
tenderness and beauty. The precincts of private grief are 
too sacred to be invaded by stranger-step. But this sketch 
would fail to present a faithful portraiture of Linton Ste- 
phens, and do injustice to his memory, if the evidences of 



126 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

his devotion to her — recorded in an epistolary correspond- 
ence, at once the saddest and most beautiful I ever read — 
were altogether omitted. He exemplified, in his domestic 
life, all the virtues that make Home sweet and holy, 

[From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

Crawfordville, March 14, 1857. 

Dear Brother — The day is fast waning towards evening 
twilight. Since you left, I have written eighteen letters — 
this is the nineteenth — my fingers are tired, but I could not 
close my labors without saying a word to you. You are 
before this time at home, I suppose — safely there, I trust. 
Long did I watch the carriage to-day as it slowly bore you 
away. I thought of the muddy roads and chill air you 
had to encounter, and then the sad scenes you would meet 
at your journey's end. With a fervent prayer that you 
might be sustained by that Power above, that rules and 
shapes our destinies, and that with resignation and forti- 
tude you would bear up against whatever sorrows or griefs 
may ever betide you, I watched your progress. When no 
longer you were in sight, still my heart's yearnings pur- 
sued you, and though I betook myself to the duties of life, 
and for a time had my mind absorbed in business, in at- 
tending to the demands and wishes of men of various kinds, 
scattered all over the country ; yet, after it is all over, my 
mind is with you. You. above anything else or anybody 
else, are the object of my solicitude, anxiety and love. I 
feel for you in your grief — I mourn with you in your sor- 
row — I weep with you in your distress. I would fain soothe 
your pangs if I could ; but, after all, human consolation can 
avail nothing. Look to a Power higher and abler. But do 
not despair — do not let your strength fail you. Bear with 
fortitude and resignation whatever afflictions may befall 
you. Don't indulge in despondent feelings; rise early — 
take bodily exercise ; devote your mind to some .engaging 
subject; don't be much alone; don't brood over the sub- 
ject of your grief; above all, don't let your mind be ab- 
sorbed in thought after you retire at night ; seek repose and 
sleep. Exercise will conduce to this. Be as cheerful as you 
can ; cultivate the feeling ; read such books and seek such 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. I27 

company as will conduce to it. Be master of your pas- 
sions, appetites and weaknesses, whatever they may be, 
and may God bless and sustain you, now and forever. 
Yours, affectionately, 

A. H. Stephens. 

He was again nominated this year for Congress. The 
American party was known to have a decided majority in ■ 
the district; but it was believed that a vigorous canvass on 
his part, and his great personal popularity, would overcome 
it. The Hon. Joshua Hill was the nominee of the Ameri- 
can party — undoubtedly their strongest man. The canvass 
promised to be a spirited one — for, the opposing candidates 
were the idols of their parties, and deservedly so — but it 
had scarcely opened before Mr. Stephens met, with an in- 
jury by being thrown from a stage-coach — returning from the 
burial of his sister, Catharine — which so far disabled him 
that he could not meet his competitor upon the hustings. 
His right knee received a hurt from which he never en- 
tirely recovered. Mr. Hill was elected by a small majority. 

Mr. Stephens attended the Democratic Gubernatorial 
Convention which first nominated Governor Joseph E. 
Brown for the office which he filled for nearly eight years. 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, June 29, 1857. 

Dear Brother — I intend going 

over to see you and stay with you a day or two ; but I write, 
lest something should prevent me. I was well pleased with 
the action of the convention. The Kansas part of the plat- 
form was drawn by me Brown is a man 

that I know to have decided ability ; as a debater, he is far 
superior to any of those who were before the convention. 
Indeed, without being an orator, he is a very effective 
stump-speaker. He is quick, clear-headed, and a close 
reasoner, with considerable turn for sharp, witty remark. 
He was a firm Southern-rights man, and one of the most 
prudent among them. Besides all this, he is a man of fine 



128 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

personal character, and self-made. He was poor, but bor- 
rowed money and graduated at Yale College. He stands 
high in the up-country, and deserves it. I served in the 
Legislature with him in the sessions of i849and 1850. The 
man, and the section from which he comes, are also an ex- 
cellent lick for Toombs. I have written to Mr. Cobb to- 
day, urging him to have Walker recalled. I don't know, 
nor care much, (as far as I am concerned) what they do. 
Colonel Foster told, at a party-meeting in Madison the other 
day, (so Carlos writes) that they need not nominate him, 
unless they wanted him to take a beating. If they con- 
cluded that they needed a candidate for a beating, he would 
not run off for fear of defeat, etc. 



[ From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, July 4, 1857. 

Dear Brother — I got a letter this 

morning from Nisbet, of the Federal Union, saying that the 
Democratic party will not go as far, in relation to Walker 
and Kansas, as the convention went. He says they will 
not make Walker's removal a sine qua non; and that he has 
received numerous letters from friends requesting him to 
write to me, and request me to withhold my letter of ac- 
ceptance for the present. This is exactly the substance of 
the letter — introduced and closed with great assurances of 
friendship, etc. I don't know what I shall do yet. I in- 
tend, however, to wait and see what the Know-Nothing 
concern may do next week, and then decide on my course. 
I am at times disposed to run anyhow, on my own plat- 
form, with defiance to everybody who is against it, and call- 
ing upon all men, of all parties, to back me in defense of 
our own section. But the prevailing disposition with me 
is to set forth my opinions on the present state of affairs, 
and my reasons for them, and then leave the turf, and all 
the scramblers for office, and party slaves, to take care of 
themselves. This is what I think I shall do. I had begun 
to feel some interest in the subject, and had begun to oc- 
cupy myself with it as a driiertisefnent ; but now I don't 
care anything about it 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1 29 

[Fmm I.. S. to A. II. S. ] 

Si'ARTA, December 10, 1857. 

Dear Brother — I am sorn- 

to hear that Douglas is against the Kansas Constitution. I 
don't suppose his objection can be that of Forney — that 
the whole Constitution is not submitted — for he himself, in 
his Springfield speech, held that no submission at all was 
necessary. If the convention had power to complete their 
work without submitting it at all, or to submit it if the\- 
chose, assuredly they might finish one part themselves, and 
submit another, covering the main topic of difference. I 
scarcely suppose he can object to the class of voters; for 
certainly the convention had the power to prescribe them, 
and in exercising it, the)' have not exhibited partialit}- b}- 
excluding anybody. Nor can there be any valid objection 
to the test-oath, requiring each voter, if challenged, to swear 
to support the Constitution as adopted ; for any one, who 
would refuse to take such an oath, would be an enemy to 
government in the proper sense of the term. Such a man 
could intend to submit to government, only in the event 
of government going his own way — that is, only provided 
he could govern himself and other people, too. Such a man 
is hostile to the compact on which all government rests ; he 
is an outlaw, and ought to be excluded from all participa- 
tion in the general action. He should not be allowed the 
chance of getting his own way over other people, while he 
stands with the defiant declaration that he will not allow 
other people to have their way over him. Is his objection 
founded on the provision that the present laws shall remain 
of force until repealed by the Legislature under the new 
Constitution? They surely had the legal power to make 
that provision ; for, out of their sovereign power to estab- 
lish a Constitution, they might have instituted a new gov- 
ernment, entirely cutting off the existing one, and enacting 
what la%vs they pleased. To be sure, there is a difference, in 
this respect, between a State convention and a Territorial 
convention ; and, on this difference, I can well imagine that 
difference of views might arise; but if you do not already 
see the solution, I think I can give it so clearly that there 
can be no answer to it ; but, lest the difference may not 
have presented itself to vou, let me first state it, and then 

13* 



I 30 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

show that the difference cannot legitimately affect the mat- 
ter in hand — that is, the legal power of the Kansas Con- 
vention to do precisely what they did. 

A State convention (assuming always that it is assem- 
bled in pursuance of the existing Constitution, so as to avoid 
revolution) would be sovereign, not only in degree, but in 
time also; ^or they might immediately inaugurate the new 
state of things and wipe out the old — they could dissolve an 
existing Legislature. A Territorial convention, on the con- 
trary, is sovereign in degree only, and not in time. Per- 
haps it is a better phrase to say, that the power of the State 
convention would be complete without awaiting action by 
anybody else ; while the power of the Territorial conven- 
tion is only inchoate, and needs the admission of the new 
State, by Congress, to set it in motion. The difference 
may be illustrated by the departure of a ship out of port: 
In one case, the captain can sail where he pleases; in an- 
other case, he must await permission of some one else; but 
in both cases, suppose him to have power to take aboard 
what freight he pleases: then my idea is illustrated. The 
State convention can start when they please, and carry v.-hat 
they please. On the other hand, the Territorial convention 
can start only when Congress speaks the Jiat ; but, then, 
their power is as great as that of the State convention over 
the freight. The Constitution, formed by a Territorial con-* 
vention, is like Adam was when his body was formed — com- 
plete, but still waiting for the breath of life. It can have 
no operation until the new State is admitted. How, then, 
it may be asked, (and I say it may be asked, because the 
question occurred to my own mind,) can the Kansas Con- 
vention enact that existing laws shall continue in force until 
repealed by a Legislature under the new Constitution? 
How can they supersede the existing Legislature, or put 
restraints upon its power, before their own power has had 
vitality put into it? This question may have given to 
other minds, as it did, at first presentation, give me, some 
difficulty. The Constitution which they have formed (if 
our papers have given a correct syn.opsis of it) seems, on its 
face, to attempt to hamper the present Legislature by an- 
nulling their authority to alter, amend or repeal existing 
laws. The language of the second section is: "All laws 
now of force in the Territory of Kansas, which are not re- 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. IJI 

pugnant to this Constitution, shall continue and be of force 
until altered, amended or repealed by a Legislature assem- 
bled by the provisions of this Constitution. " And then the 
seventeenth section declares: "This Constitution shall take 
effect, and be in force, from and after its ratification by the 
people, as hereinbefore provided." Now, in my judgment, 
this will not interfere, nor was it intended to interfere, (but 
whether so intended or not. in point of fact, cannot legally 
interfere,) with the intermediate powers of the existing 
Legislature. Although it is declared that the Constitution 
shall take effect, and be in full force, from the time of its 
ratification, yet this, by legal intendment, must be applied 
to the great, and indeed only end in view — the formation of 
a Constitution to be presetited to Co?igf'ess, and to govern the 
country after the State shall be admitted into the Union. 
The whole work of the convention (and of the people 
jointly, it being partly submitted for their ratification) was, 
if you please, to build the ship and rig her off, furnished for 
sailing, and then turn her over to Congress, who must 
laimch her; and they have simply declared that their work 
.shall not be complete — that the ship .shall not be pro- 
nounced sea-worthy and turned over to Congress — until the 
people shall put on the finishing rope by ratifying, or reject- 
ing, the slavery clause. After she is lajinched, then she 
passes out, free from all action by Congress, and rigged and 
freighted just as she was offered at the wharf. Then, and 
not until then, will the laws existing in Kansas, when the 
convention adjourned, begin to be in force, (so far as any val- 
idity is imparted by the Constitution to them,) and continue 
to be in force until repealed by the State Legislature. In 
other words, these second and seventeenth sections are onl>- 
a declaration of the status on which the v\q\\ State will start. 
Nor could the convention have meant anything else, be- 
cause the Constitution expressly provides the manner of its 
own presentation to Congress, and, therefore, could not 
have intended that it .should go into action, as a government, 
before Congress should have admitted the new State. Nor 
would any 7/nfair consequences result to the anti-slaver\' 
men there, if the people should reject slavery from the 
present laws protecting slave property, being included as a 
part of the new statutes ; for they would not be so included, 
except so far as to protect existing slave property ; because. 



132 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

if the people reject slavery, then would all laws protecting 
prospective slavery be repugnant to the Constitution, and 
only those are to be "continued in force" which are not 
repugnant to the Constitution. Such would be rei)ugnant, 
because the Constitution expressly declares, that if there 
shall be a majority of votes for the Constitution, \\ithout 
slavery, then shall the pro-slavery clause be stricken out, 
and it is declared that slavery shall not exist ; and let me 
further remark, what I was about to omit, that, in the other 
event, of slavery being ratified by the people, then a status 
of laws protecting slave property would be of the utmost 
consequence to slave-holders; for, otherwise, this present 
Black Republican Legislature might, by repealing all such 
existing laws, start the new State off with slave property un- 
protected, although the people should have solemnly de- 
cided in favor of slavery: so that this provision is a y"^??>'onc 
and an important one to the pro-slavery men, and just such 
as cannot possibly impose any unfair disadvantage upon the 
other side. Indeed, the absence of it would be absolutely 
unfair to our side. I am afraid I have wearied you, and I 
will quit. It may be that I have onl}' been fighting men of 
straw ; but, at any rate, this sketch will serve to give you 
my general analysis of the Kansas Constitution, and my no- 
tions of its defense. I would like for you to write me how 
far you agree with me, and also whetlier or not I have 
struck any of the points of difficult}- ; and yet. there is one 
other view I must present in relation to the matter oi fair- 
ness : The convention was fairly elected, and was largely 
pro-slavery, and was under no legal obligation to submit 
their work to the people. We had won the trick, and wc 
are entitled to it. But, again, when we had it in our hands, 
and might have kept it simply by holding on, isn't it hard 
that we should be charged w^ith unfairness, when we volun- 
tarily yielded it up, and gave our opponents another chance 
at it? But enough. 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, December 13, 1857. 

Dear Brother — I am just about to start to Milledgeville. 
Thomas VV. Thomas is here, and is going with me. He 
came over from there, day before yesterday, on his way to 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. T33 

Washington City. The Governor appointed him and Ward 
as counsel in the case of Alabama 7>s. Georgia. Brown was 
served with process lately ; and as Johnson had been served 
with a copy of the bill two years ago, they all concluded 
then, that this last was a Jivzi' case ; but they were not sat- 
isfied; so Thomas came by to see ne. When I explained 
it, he decided to go back. He says he will not retain his 
appointment, because it was made under a mistake. Oba- 
diah Gibson was appointed associate counsel with me, by 
Governor Johnson, on the 30th of October last 

1 From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 

Sparta, December 29, 1857. 

Dear Brother — It is night again, and again I am about 
to close a night of v.ork with a letter to you— not that I 
have anything of consequence to say, but merely because, 
while I am at it, it comes easier. The vis inertia is a pre- 
vailing law of nature, controlling matter and mind. It is a 
powerful law with me. I can continue, when tired, more 
easily than I can commence, when dull or indisposed. Re- 
sistance to change seems to be stamped upon all things, 
animate and inanimate ; and yet, alas ! the great tide of 
change sweeps all things, good and bad, beautiful and loath- 
some, lovely and horrible, along its own ceaseless and re- 
sistless course. All things instinctively oppo.se it; yet all 
things are inevitably its victims. It is but the struggling 
of the fly in the spider's web, or the fluttering of the poor 
bird under the serpent's charm. It is a hard thing to move 
and a hard thing to stop; and yet it is true, that we arc 
forever moving and eternally stopping. What wonder, then, 
that, in the conflict, there should be a very severing of the 
joints and the marrow ! The universe is but a vast mass of 
contending elements in travail. What wonder, then, that 
the births should be woe ! woe ! woe ! or, it is true that light 
was indeed stricken out of the darkness of chaos? Wlien 
does it .shine but to make visible the torture and misery 
which before lay unseen and unfelt in the repose of dark 
nonentity? Who is the great Intelligence, or what the un- 
knowing Cause that ever, eternally drives the crushing and 
relentless wheels of Necessity? But I had no idea of run- 
ning into such an unavailing train ; such thoughts were not 
in my mind when I commenced to write to you 



134 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

Mr. Stephens, from early manhood, was often appHed 
to, by ahnost all classes of people, in emergency, for pe- 
cuniary aid. Hardly any one of his acquaintance, needing 
the benefaction, felt delicacy or showed hesitancy in ap- 
proaching liivi. No worthy applicant was ever turned away 
empty, if compliance were a possibility ; and while he dis- 
pensed many charities, whereof it was impossible the world 
could be ignorant, he also bestowed uncounted thousands, 
which will not be known until the common Father shall 
say: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least 
of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." 

[ From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, January 3, 1858. 

Dear Brother — For the want ot 

something else to do, I will tell you of some applications 

which I have lately had for money in charity. 

(whom I took to be a son of , and who wrote me a 

very good letter) asked me to send him to school this year. 
I agreed to do so, and am to see his board and tuition paid 

at the end of the year. , (a grandson of old ,) 

asked of me the same favor, and I granted that, too, after 
passing several letters — and, at last, with considerable re- 
luctance. I did not like the way he wrote, and I gave him 
some very plain talk. His last letter was in much better 
taste ; but I was afraid the improvement arose from a desire 
to succeed with his application, rather than any real amend- 
ment of his views. But I hope for the best. 

( ) wrote me, a few days ago. that he must have eighty 

dollars soon, and called on me to furnish it. I simply re- 
plied that it was not convenient for me to do so. About 

the same time, sent me a letter, asking the loan of 

twenty-five dollars for three months, saying he was going 

to clerk for somebody in , and had "«£> close," and 

promising, faithfully, to pa}' me at end of three months. 
He concluded with a peroration that would have done honor 
to a finished rhetorician: "/ am poor, bitt Jionest '/' My 
reply to him was, that he must call on for my an- 
swer, and at the same time I wrote to telling him 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1 35 

what had written to me, and requesting him to let 

me know if it was true that was going into a clerk- 
ing business, etc. I authorized him, if it was true, to buy 
clothes for him to the amount of twenty-five dollars, and 
that I would pay for them the first time I might go to 

Crawfordville. I explained to him that I doubted 's 

story, and suspected it might be a mere trick to ''viake a 

rise,'' and gave him the history of how fooled you 

about the horse. I reckon it would have been better if I 
had merely refused the application, as I have just refused 
's; but I really desired to help him, if it would in- 
deed be true lielp ; and so I took the risk of offending 

. I tried, however, to put it as kindly as possible. 

I have heard nothing from him, though sufficient time has 
elapsed for him to have written. Another application was 

from , of , for me to give her one hundred 

dollars, which she desired to use in restoring her health (if 
possible) by a trip to Florida. She .said she had consump- 
tion. I declined to do so in a short answer expressed in as 
civil terms as I could command. Besides these, there have 
been divers others in the county here at home. I have re- 
fused most of them, for they were simply bold cases to at- 
tempt to sponge and rob. By the way, told me 

J:hat had made a similar application to him, (though 

not for any specific amount,) and that he sent her fifty 
dollars 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sp.\rta, January 13, 1858, 

Dear Brother — January 18. 

This letter vras commenced at the date it bears, but was cut 
short at the time by an interruption of some of the servants, 
and has since lain as you find it. I have received your 

letter about young , and I am truly sorry I did not 

get it sooner. I suppose he is at school before this time. 
1 think to educate such a fellow is only to augment the 
power of a rascal — a bad deed instead of a good one. I 

have never yet heard farther from nor from . 

It was clearly a trick of . 

I am glad to see the stand you and Mr. Toombs have 
taken on the Central-American question; and I am glad to 



136 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

see that Douglas is with }'ou. I noticed the few words be- 
tween you and the man who laughed at me for eating 
gnv.ind-pcas, about instructions to his committee. It was 
m}' turn to laugh when 1 saw it; but indeed I did not use 
my just privilege, even to the extent of a silent smile. I 
felt sorry for him. He is manifestly affected with that in- 
firmity which the Irishman said was worse than being a 
knave — that is, being a fool — because, as Paddy had it, he 
could quit being a knave, but could not quit being a fool. 
What effect do you think your course on the Central- 
American question will have on the administration in 
regard to the Kansas question ? / think it will scare 
them, and tend, at least, to make them stand up. If they 
have got any sense at all, (?) they must see that they arc in 
danger of losing the whole South, and that they can't af- 
ford any shuffling on the Kansas question. I discover, from 
the indications in the Senate, that the Southern Know- 
Nothings intend to take sides with the administration on 
the Central- American question. Is it not so? What did 
Josh Hill mean by voting for Henry Winter Davis for 

Speaker? Dick Johnston has gone 

to Athens. 1 am almost literally alone in the world. But 
sometimes I get along pretty well. The return of good 
weather has helped me. I don't think I shall go to Wash- 
ington this winter, but i do not jj'^/ so decide positively. 1 
should like very much to be with you, but I should be very 
uneasy about the children. Little Emm has been sick, 
but is now about well again. She is very fond of me, and 
so indeed are Becky and Claude. They are about me nearly 
all the time when I am at the house. Last night, just at 
twelve o'clock, Becky got out of her bed in the nursery (the 
folding, or rather drazoiiig doors being open) and came to 
me at the fire in my room where I was reading, and said 
she wanted me to go to bed. Everybody else, children 
and servants, were in profound slumber. I asked her what 
made her wake? She said because she wanted me to go to 
bed. I told her I would put her to bed, but she said she 
wanted me to go, and she would go with me. So I quit 
my reading and took her to bed with me. I thought it 
was a singular thing in her. She did not seem to be scared, 
or at all seeking protection from her fears, but it was just 
simply a freak that she wanted to see me go to bed, and for 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 137 

her offer to sleep with me was an inducement. That was the 
spirit of the wliole action. But I really fear that I weary 
you with such details of simple, childish things. I am free 
to own that such, in anybody else's children, would be of 
little interest to me. But these little passages with my 
little ones and me are really the greatest comforts I have, 
and sometimes 1 grow tedious on them, no doubt. But it 
does me a little good to write them, and you can skip them, 

and I will never inquire about it, nor care about it 

Mr. Thomas staid with me the greater part of last week, 
and is coming back to-morrow to stay the remainder of this 
week. He went home yesterday evening with a spell of 
the headache on him ; but Bill was in town to-day and told 
me he had got over it. He was here professedly on busi- 
ness, and he really had business, but did little of it, and is 
coming back. I thought he wanted company. He is just 
the man to consider it a weakness to feel such a want, or 
rather to allow the feeling to take him away from business. 
For my own part, 1 think the true philosophy is, that the 
best business is to be happy, so far as that is attainable in 
life, consistently with innocence, and therefore with happi- 
ness hereafter But I have no idea of going oft 

into an account of my feelings or griefs, or its variations. 
At this time, at least, I prefer to write in a pleasant vein, 
if I can do it, and I will not allow myself to-night to call 
upon you for sympathy, which grieves you, and can scarce 
assuage a pang for me. So again, good night, and may you 
be as happy as possible. 

Yours, most affectionately, 

Linton Stephens. 

[From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 

Sparta, February 9, 1858. 

Dear Brother — 1 read Mr. 

Toombs' speech to-day, on the message of the President 
accompanying the Lecompton Constitution. It is very 
powerful. I am getting sick and tired of the manner in 
which the subject of slavery is treated by Northern men — 
Democrats and all. If Kansas is not admitted — or rather, if 
she is refused admission — I am for dissolution. I would not 
acknowledge allegiance to a government which sets upon 

14* 



138 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

me and my section a brand of sin, and infamy, and degra- 
dation. Douglas, and h's Black Republican backers, may 
smile, and split hairs, and swear that they are honest until 
they turn black in the face, and I shall not believe one word 
of it. If Kansas is rejected, it will be simply and purely 
because she is considered unfit to keep company with the 
"Holy Willies" of the canting, Pharisaical North; and 
when that test of association is made, I am for leaving the 
company that makes it. The bonds of my attachment to 
the Union are powerfully loosened, and if Kansas is rejected, 
they will be broken. We scarcely know the Union now, 
except through its burthens, and I am not willing to pocket 
its insults. They should not evade the issue by a pretext. 
The true issue is, and Congress ought to be held to it, and 
it ought to be so proclaimed to them with a united defiance, 
whether a State with slavery is fit to be admitted into the 
Union. If it be decided against us, honor leaves but one 
course, and that is, for all the slave States to walk out of 
the Union, and fling their defiance behind them ; and if no 
other will, I hope Georgia will do it, "solitary and alone." 
I do trust that, at the right time, you will give them fire 
and thunder. Read the Georgia platform to them ; and 
tell them it shall not be evaded by a miserable pretext. Let 
the hunters of the Presidency know that there will be no 
Presidency left to be hunted for. I say, if the South sub- 
mits to the rejection of Kansas, she is a craven, and deserves 
her fate. She is ready for a master, and if she could be 
left the poor privilege of choosing one, I should prefer to 
see her take one, rather than fifteen millions of a lawless mob. 
A pure Democracy, in a small State of homogeneous in- 
terests, is tolerable, but in a State divided into two perma- 
nent antagonisms, with a large numerical majority on one 
side, is the most despotic of all governments. A mob, 
when unrestrained by interest, is terrific in its utter irre 
sponsibilty. If Kansas is rejected, our government be- 
comes a pure Democracy ; the only law is that of superior 
numbers; the only power is that of an irresponsible mob, 
and that mob hostile to us. We have got to fight it, or 
deter it, or succumb to it. I am for the first, whenever it 
is necessary, for the second if it can avail, but for the last, 
never, never! 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1 39 

[ From L. S, to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, February 1 1, 1858. 

Dear Brother — I write to-night with the single design 
to mark the day as it passes ; to let you know that I am 
not unmindful of your having this day aMved at one more 
mile-post on the short road of life. I was about to say 
that I send you birth-day greetings; but, alas! I have no 
greetings to send — if greetings are to imply joy or con- 
gratulation. But in their stead, I can, and do send you 
the heart-warm good wishes of your affectionate 

Brother. 

P. S. — It is a sad thing that such a superscription as the 
above should be so specific — without a name, and yet a 
perfect identification of my individuality. 

[ From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, February 13, 1858. 

Dear Brother — I have written a 

letter to-night to Josh Hill, and I wish you would contrive 
to get a chance to read it, so as to give me your opinion of 
it in point of taste. Considering to whom it is written, I 
am very doubtful about the good taste of the vein in which 
it is written. I mean, however, to send it. The part which 
gives me doubt is inttmded in pure fun, and I suppose he 
will take it so. The other part of it, I hope, may produce 
good, wholesome fruit. I gave him a message for you in 
the letter as an introduction of the subject: so you may ask 
him what I wrote, and so see the letter, unless he is re- 
solved not to let you see it 

]From L. S. to A. H. S.] 

Sparta, February 17, 1858. 

Dear Brother — I have been very 

busy of late, and have not had time to finish the Answer 
of Georgia. I cannot do it now during the term of court. 
I read your remarks on Campbell's motion for a continu- 
ance with a great deal of satisfaction. I only regret that 
you did not tell them plainly what object the "pretext" 
was designed to accomplish, so as to show in vivid light the 
aid and comfort our enemy was receiving from the poor, 
cowardly dodging of small Southern men 



140 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

[P>om L. S. to A. II. S. ] 

March 2, 1858. 

Dear Brother — Ixt me tell you an 

incident that occurred to Becky and Rio just before she 
was sick. She had got to taking Rio through his manual 
(of tricks) occasionally, by the aid of a piece of meat, which 
she would hold up for him as a reward of obedience. On 
the occasion to which I particularly refer, she made him 
"sit up" and "turn over," and then got him stretched out 
to be dead. After waiting a little while, she gave him the 
signal to rise ; but, somehow or other, Rio had become ob- 
livious as to the master (or mistress) of ceremonies, and all 
her "that'll do's" were of no avail to raise him from his 
death-like posture. She became very energetic at last, and 
urgent with her "that'll do," but still Rio lay immovable. 
Becky looked uneasy, and I took occasion to play on her. 
Said I : "There now! what have you done? You've killed 
uncle Eckly's dog! Shall I write to him about it?" At 
this, the servants (it was just as we had risen from the 
breakfast-table) all broke out in a laugh, and poor Becky 
looked like the picture of despair; but she didn't remain 
long inactive: she looked at me, as if to read my face, 
(which was solemn as I could make it,) and then suddenly 
she jumped at Rio (who, a grand villain, seemed to be en- 
joying the scene) and shook him pretty roughly. His re- 
ply to that salute was a very audible growl. Instantly, tri- 
umph was in Becky's eye. She stepped a pace backward, 
having Rio between her and myself, and, with the air and 
emphasis of a tragedy-queen, demanded of me, "Do you 
call ///«/ dead ? " The effect was irresistible to me, and I 
exploded, and so did the servants, and so did Rio ; for the 
scoundrel clearly perceived that the game was up, and he 
did not hesitate to throw off the sham, and, in the most 
marked manner, express his appreciation of the sport. 
Poor Rio ! he is at Crawfordville, and he was very loth to 
stay behind 

I do not know what else I can write, unless I tell you I 
am sad and sorrowful ; but I do not wish to give you my 
thoughts about that ; so I will say, good-bye. 
[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Elberton, March 13, 1858. 

Dear Brother — You say I 

have never said what I thought of your speech in Walker 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. I4I 

and Paulding. I saw that speech in due season, and wrote 
you my opinion of it immediately. I expressed myself as 
greatly pleased with its doctrine and its style. I thought 
it was an able exposition of the true doctrine, unanswera- 
ble, and passing, as the debate showed, with many allusions 

to it, but without any attempt to answer it 

I made one jury speech, at Madison court, in defense of 
a man who was charged with an assault with intent to mur- 
der. Thomas prosecuted him. He was acquitted — very 
much contrary to everybody's expectations. The State in- 
troduced two witnesses, and I got up a conflict betweeii 
them ; introduced no evidence ; had the conclusion ; and 
Nash says I will forever be known in Madison as the "Su- 
sannah man." I was appointed by the court. The fel- 
low's name was Stephens. That was the second occasion 
on which I saved the name. The other was the poor fellow 

in Warren I have 

defended one of Thomas' friends here, and acquitted him 
on a technical point. Thomas did not defend the case at 
all. I had no fee, nor did Thomas 



[From L. S. to A. li. S. ] 

Sparta, March 29, 1858. 

Dear Brother — Have you made 

no speech on the Lecompton Constitution? I have seen 
none from you. Did you ever get a letter from me, saying 
what I thought the South ought to do in case Kansas shall 
be rejected? I wrote it long ago, but you have never at- 
tended to it. I said we ought to break up the Union. I 
don't allude to it for the purpose of going into the matter 
at all at this time, but merely by way of identifying the 
letter. I think but little about it. Indeed, I am sorry and 
distressed to see from your letters that you allow yourself 
to be made so unhappy about it. It is not worth the trou- 
ble. Fame is a poor thing — a miserably poor thing! Life 
is a poor thing — patriotism is a poor thing — all the things 
of this world are poor, beggarly elements — ashes and emp- 
tiness! Almost all men talk in this strain sometimes; but 
I think he is a poor, deluded man who does not fed it 
always. 



142 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

A messenger has just come from my plantation for a 
doctor to go and see a negro who is taken suddenly very 
ill — so goes the world. Again, good-night. 

[L. S. to R. M. Johnston. ] 

Sparta, March 30, 1858. 
Dear Dick — I returned home last Friday, after an ab- 
sence of five weeks at Taliaferro, Madison, Elbert, Hart 
and Wilkes courts. I found nothing, on my return, from 
you. Will you not be at Hancock court? Are you all 
well? How are you pleased now, and how are you all 
pleased with your new home since you have all got together 
again? But is it home? How would you feel in reading 
an instrument, under seal, opening in this wise: "This in- 
denture, made this, the first day of April, in the year eight- 
een hundred and fifty-eight, between Richard M. Johnston, 
of the cojDity of Clarke, of the one part?" etc. Wouldn't it, 
in fact, have the appearance of a transaction, dated with 
great fitness, on the first day of April ? Wouldn't it be a 
fooling piece of business? In short, I want you to inform 
me — distinctly inform me — whether or not you consider 

yourself suable in the county of Clarke I did 

not see the five chapters in the Constihttioiialist until the mat- 
ter was called to my attention, by members of the bar, while 
I was out last. It was a subject of much talk, and favora- 
ble talk. Nobody knew the author, or seemed to suspect 
him ; but, to confess the truth, after hearing them talk 
about it, I couldn't help telling them w^ho he was; and I 
rrt/Z/^v' pulled my shirt-collar up, too, when I did it — as much 
as to say, "My old partner, gen.tlemen — mine intimate 
friend — ahem!" Let me tell you a good joke about it: 
Huff, of Warrenton, said the scene was laid in Warren 
county, and that Judge Roberts was well acquainted with 
the characters that figure in it. Now, I protest that, in all 
my attempts to connect myself with the honors of this new 
author, I have confined myself to the truth ; but you now 
perceive that others have been too strongly tempted to be 
"delivered from evil ; " but in plain, sober narrative, I have 
heard the piece much praised, and have been greatly de- 
lighted ; and now, with my warmest good wishes for your 
happiness here and hereafter, I remain, as ever, 

Yours, most truly, Linton Stephens. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 143 

The last paragraph has reference to some amusing papers 
which Colonel Johnston furnished to the Augusta Constiht- 
ttonaHst, and which were subsequently published in book- 
form. They were in the vein of the "Georgia Scenes," 
and were very popular, and greatly admired by those who 
have a relish for what is ludicrous in incident or in char- 
acter. "Philemon Perch" is immortal in the realms of 

funny fiction. 

[ From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Washington, Ga., March 31, 1858. 

Dear Brother — Mr. Thomas was 

at my house very sick with headache. I was up with him, 
and afterwards wrote ten letters. I slept in the cars this 
evening and dreamed all the way. My dreams were of 
home, sweet, happy home, as it used to be, and the loved 
One who use to bless it, but shall never bless it more — no 
more, forever, except in dreams and in memories! These 
memories are sometimes sweet, and yet always painful — 
often overwhelming. Often, very often, do I cry out, 
"Oh! had I wings, I'd fly away and be at rest." It's a 
weary, weary life to me. When I die, one weary head and 
worn-out heart will be at rest. Good-night. 

Affectionately, Linton. 

[From L. S. to A. H. S.] 

Warrenton, April 5, 1858. 

Dear Brother — Mr. Toombs 

went on to Washington City yesterday evening; I parted 
with him at Camak. The court here will probably be a 
short one, on account of the absence of him, yourself and 
Thomas, though no case has been continued yet for the 
absence of any one of you. I am afraid something is the 
matter with Thomas, or some of his family. You will hear 

through Mr. Toombs all the news You 

have sent me no instructions about your cases here, nor 
anywhere else. I will get all continued here if I can ; for I 
shall certainly, if possible, avoid the putting of my IWirren 
luck upon you. I have succeeded' ever}-where else this 
riding; but I have Jiever succeeded here, and I don't expect 
to now. 



144 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

April 6th. This morning, before I got out of bed, 
in came Dick, (Thomas' man) with a letter to me from 
Thomas, saying his wife was very ill, and he could not leave 

home Poor Thomas — I pity him deepl)', 

and fervently do I hope that the cup may pass from him. 
I also got a letter this morning from Tom Cobb, saying he 
cannot come to this court on account of a religious revival 
which is going on in Athens. Tom has got to be very 
much of a religious zealot. But, withal, he is uncommonly 
modest, and unobtrusive, and sincere in his religion. Poor 
fellow! He, too, has been a great sufferer.''' 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Warrentox, April 8, 1858. 

Dear Brother — Saving a very 

few objects of affection, life has little that can add to, or 
take frofn, the small sum of happiness now left to me. M\- 
children, my poor children ! I do deeply pity thcin. But 
enough of this, too. I have a great propensity to talk, or 
to write of my griefs and my sufferings ; but I cannot help 
feeling that the ear of the warmest friend is growing dull, 
and constantly more dull, to the oft-repeated story. No 
man has a right to make himself disagreeable; and human 
nature will not pardon disagreeableness long. The man 
who inflicts his griefs and complaints upon his friends must 
soon lose his friends. Yet, it is hard to speak otherwise 
than out of the abundance of the heart. The consequence 
with, me is, that I have but little to say. Silence and soli- 
tude are my most constant and congenial companions. 1 
have talked and written of the thoughts that possess me, 
to you more than I have presumed to do to anybody else. 

And now, good-night 

Affectionately, Lintox. 

[From L. S. to A. H. S.] 

Sparta, April 13, 1858. 
Dear Brother — The last letter I got from you was dated 
the 7th instant, and was received on the loth, on my return 

■•■■ Mr. Cobl) h.ad at that time recently lost a lovely daughter, Lucy, just 
lilooming into womanhood. "The Lucy Cobb Institute," at Athens, was 
named for her. 



JUDGE IJKTON S'rEPHEN?:. I45 

home from Warren court Saturday night. Jack Smith tells 
me he saw }'ou on the 8th, and that is the last news I have 
had of you. I think my letters to you, while I was on the 
circuit, were pretty frequent, considering that I was away 
from home, in crowds at night, and often busy at night. I 
am sorry yours to me have become so much less frequent. 
1 wrote you from Warren court, that Thomas had not got 
there on account of the illness of his wife. He afterwards 
came, and then came on home with the Judge and me in 
our con\^eyance. He and 1 went to church here on Sunday. 
Monda)' night, a messenger came to tell him that his wife 
was worse. He started off home that night. Daniel took 
him in my buggy to Double Wells. He got Dr. Alfriend 
to go, too. Alfriend got back here on Wednesday morning, 
and reported that he and Thomas had arrived at Elberton 
about two o'clock the day before, and found Thomas' wife 
dead. She had been dead about twenty-four hours, having 
died about ten o'clock Monday morning. She was dead 
when the messenger got here. Thomas did not hear of the 
fact till he had got half way from his back gate to his wife'.s 
room. They buried her the same evening of their arrival, 
and Alfriend left that night. When Thomas left home, his 
doctor had pronounced her out of danger, and she had urged 
him to go to his courts. Little did either of them dream that 
they were parting to meet no more. The}' observed no change 
for the worse until Saturday, and did not regard the change 
as serious until Sunday, when they started the messenger for 
Thomas. Oh! whata terrible stroke it was to poor Thomas! 
i think of him every hour in the day, and pity him with a 
pit)- that few can comprehend. Poor Thomas! poor 
1 homas ! But he has one great stay and comfort in hav- 
ing a mother left to him. My own greatest sense of be- 
reavement has been in the loss of that one single being on 
whom I leaned in every trouble. It has often seemed to 
me that I could bear any other affliction as heavy as the 
loss of her, (if it were possible for any other to be as heavy) 
if 1 could only have her help me bear it. But she being 
gone, all is desolation ! There is no comfort, and nothing 
but despair. But 1 imagine and trust that it is not so with 
Thomas. It is a great calamity to be dependent on any 
one being, as I was upon my wife. 1 was aware of it to a 
great extent while she was in life; but 1 had not compre- 

15 



146 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

hended it all. I had often trembled at the prospect of our 
separation; but still had cherished a hope, which was a 
blessed and blissful one, that we should glide gently along 
through many happy years, and then sink to rest togctJicr. 
Often, often, did we express to each other the fervent as- 
piration that we might not be separated in our deaths. 
Oh, God! it seems to me I am crazy ! So keen and so sud- 
den does the sense of my loss strike me at many times, as 
to deprive me of all sense, and transport me in a twinkling 
into a world of confusion and doubt. I often doubt whether 
I exist. It is 90 curious, because it is so sudden and con- 
founding. I am so overwhelmed by a sudden sense of what 
I miss, that I cannot realize that I am alive. This is a feel- 
ing that is very frequent with me. I never had anything 
like it before, and my description of it is but weak. I doubt 
whether you can imagine what it is. .... I intended to 
give you the result of our court here when I commenced to 
write, but I have not interest enough in it now to do so. I 
will write more in the morning. I have not gone to Ogle- 
thorpe court, because from Thomas' absence, and Tom 
Cobb's absence on account of the religious revival at 
Athens, it is certain that nothing will be done. I v/anted 
a little rest, but I have not had it yet. 

Old Mr. Prescott, the hotel-keeper in Warrenton, died 
the night after we left there. He was stricken down with 
apoplexy the day before we left. Poor old man ! The 
family seemed in great distress. May God have mercy on 
us all ! 

[From L. .S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, May 9, 1858. 

Dear Brother — I yesterday got 

and read the debate between you and Winter Davis. In 
reading his speech, I could easily perceive that he was' 
really replying, or at least shaping his words to meet a 
speech which follozvcd him. I think I should easily have 
detected that without any previous intimation that it was so. 
Your complaint of the report of his speech is a most just 
one. I can well conceive that if he had spoken the speech 
which is printed, your reply would have been differently 
turned, and, in many places, differently worded ; but I do 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1 47 

really think it is bad enough on him as it is ; and yet, I felt 
so indignant that he should at all escape. I cannot draw 
a full and clear conception from so mutilated a history 
as the Globe gives ; but I could still very satisfactorily per- 
ceive that he was badly threshed, in the opinion of the 
House, and in his own opinion. But I must close. I am 
sorry you did not come home as soon as the Kansas Bill 
was passed. You need rest. You ought to come. I like 
the Conference Bill, after comparing it with the others, 
better than I do the Senate's original bill ; but I did not 
like it a bit when I first read it. I thought it had gone off 
on a new and manufactured issue, and was nothing but a 
dodge. I felt outraged, to tell you the truth ; but I held 
my peace. I did not then understand the Senate Bill. I 
perceive the issue was an original one, and a meritorious 
one. I like the Conference Bill a good deal better than the 
other, since I have come to understand both. Good-bye. 
Affectionately, Linton Stephens. 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, May lo, 1858. 

Dear Brother — I have found 

several of our friends who did not like the "Conference 
Bill," and I think many, very many, are lukewarm towards 
it ; but I have not met with one who did not change his 
mind upon being correctly informed as to the comparative 
merits of that and the original Senate Bill. The truth is, 
the Conference Bill is not what I wished to see. I wanted 
the naked issue of admission or rejection, under the Lecomp- 
ton Constitution, decided by Congress. The Conference 
Bill does this theoretically, but not practically. It declares 
it, and, therefore, recognizes the right and the principle, 
but it leaves to a future vote the decision of the result. 
While this is true, I still have no quarrel with that bill. It 
accomplishes all that could have been accomplished by any 
bill. The issue which I desired was not decided, because 
it was not presented. It came in company with another 
issue, which complicated it, and which was obliged to be 
separated from it, unless you had submitted to be swindled 
out of the public lands. That the true issue was not prac- 
tically and finally decided by Congress is the fault, not of- 



14^^ BIOGRAPHICAT. SKETCH OF 

Congress — for they have done all that could be done — but 
it is the fault of the Constitutional Convention of Kansas, 
who presented that issue on terms that were wholly unallo\\'- 
able. The only course, therefore, was to do what you have 
done — decide the issue and leave them to reform their terms, 
it is not Congress who fixes a condition, but it was Kansas 
herself who offered a very unreasonable condition. \'ou 
have told her all that you could tell her — that you admit her 
into the Union if she will remodel her Constitution and make 
it reasonable. There is no further action needed on your part. 
You have placed her in a position from which she puts herself 
into the Union as soon as she comes to reason. Indeed, the 
legal effect of the Conference Bill is so clear and decided 
that I am amazed that any Northern man could support it, 
who had voted against the other bill because it failed to sub- 
mit the Constitution. The Conference Bill does not submit 
the Constitution ; nor does it even submit the question 
ivketlwr tlicy will come into the Union niider the Leeouipton 
Constitution. It doesn't submit the Constitution ; for it says 
expressly that this is your IcgaU valid act, and if you don't 
come in under this Constitution, the offer of grace is with- 
drawn from you, and you are remitted to the general rule, 
which requires more population than you have got ; nor 
does it submit the question whether they will come into the 
Union under the Lecompton Constitution. I know there 
are in it some words that seem to bear that import; but, in 
my judgment, they do not admit of it. There are other 
words following in the same sentence which control the 
first. The effect of the whole sentence is this: a \'ote 
against the proposition submitted shall be deemed an ex- 
pression of unwillingness to come into the Union on the 
terms proposed. The real question — the exact, precise ques- 
tion which is submitted is, whether Kansas will consent to 
come into the Union loith less land titan she has demanded. 
I could still further illustrate my analysis of this bill, but I 
must close 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sp.\rta, May 29, 1858. 

Dear Brother — The last letter 

i got from you was yesterday, on my return home. It an- 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 149 

nounced the result of the Ohio contested election. I ani 
truly glad that Vallandigham got his seat. I had two cases 
at the Supreme Court, and was plaintiff in error in both 
cases. I gained one, but lost the other. Thomas lost the 
one I gained, and he was pretty mad about it. Reese and 
I were together in it. It was the case of Nolan's will, from 
Wilkes. Mr. Toombs was of counsel with Reese and my- 
self If \'ou happen to think of it when you are with liim, 
I wish you \vould tell him we gained the case 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, June 3, 1858. 

Dk.\r Brother — 1 have neg- 
lected for some weeks to write you what I intended to write 
immediatel)^ upon its occurrence. Lamar, of Newton, 
wrote to me, inquiring whether I desired to be a candidate 
for Congress next time, and saying that the friends of Har- 
per desired to bring him forward for the race if I should 
not be in the field. He said that his inquiry was not 
prompted by a wish for me to decline ; for, he said, there 
was no man in the State whom he would prefer to see in 
Congress rather than myself; but he said his object was 
solely to be informed what my intention was, so that the 
friends of Harper might govern their course accordingly. 
He assured me that, under no circumstances, would Har- 
per, or his friends, interfere with me; for, he said, Harper's 
friends were my friends. I replied to him, immediately, 
that I should not run the race any more; and that I should 
be gratified to see the choice of the party and the district 
settle on Harper. I consulted nobody about it; I needed 
no consultation ; for none could have changed my decision ; 
that decision had long been made up, irrevocably. It was 
a painful thing to me to express, among those who had all 
been warm friends to me, a preference for any one; but I 
never did like neutral people. Harper is a noble fellow, 
and he ought to bo the man. His qualifications, and the 
complexion of the district, alike point to him as the man, 
and I felt that it would be a selfish regard for my own com- 
fort and pleasant relations to refrain from saying so; and so 
I .said it. 

I agree with you entirely in the view you express about 



150 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

our proper course towards the British ships which have out- 
raged our rights. We ought to catch them, or sink them, 
and be ourselves the party to render an explanation, instead 
of demanding one; and the explanation should be a very 
short and pointed one: simply that we liad punished indig- 
nity and insolence as they deserved: that could give no 
offense to anybody, except to those who back and defend 
the indignity and insolence ; an offense to sucli people, I 
should not regard. I think the defect in our national ad- 
ministration is a want of clear views of courage. I think 
they are quite as good as any we have had since Polk's 
time; but that is not saying much. Don't understand me 
as expressing admiration of Polk's administration ; but he 
had a policy and a will, and he carried both out with stead- 
iness and ability 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, June 7, 1858. 

Dear Brother — Among other 

things, Mr. Thomas talked about the British aggressions on 
our ships. He had seen Mr. Toombs' position announced, 
about seizing or sinking. He said he thought that right. 
He went on to say that he thought we ought to seize the 
offenders and keep them until their government disavowed 
their acts or backed them. If a disavowal should be the 
result, he said we ought to punish them ; if an indorsement 
should come, we ought to tin-n them loose, and then declare 
war against England. I asked him why we should turn 
them loose, and then declare war? I asked him what he 
would do after declaring war, and after he had turned them 
loose, except to go right straight to trying to catch them 
again? And I asked him if he did turn them loose, how 
much start he would give them ? The old gentleman smiled 
and gave it up by a severe silence. The rest all laughed, 
and I went on with somewhat of a war harangue. It does 
seem to me to be a very clear case, that we ought to cap- 
ture the offending ships. Of course, if England disavows 
their acts, she cannot claim to screen them from our just 
punishment; and if she backs them, it is only to declare 
that she had already thrust a state of war upon us. As a 
peace cjuestion, it is a clear one ; for we are only punishing 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. I5I 

individual breaches of the peace. As a war question, it is 
equally clear ; for, in that case, we would seize not only 
the offending vessels, but all otJiei- British vessels that we 
could catch. What can be a more legitimate act of war 
than to capture the enemy's vessels? That is one main 
aim of warfare. The only question, then, is, shall our en- 
emy be entitled to an advantage by making war covertly? 
If she had declared it, of course, our plain duty is to cap- 
ture all her vessels that we can. Shall we be restrained 
from capturing them because she has done acts of war with- 
out declaring war? If there is no war, we seize and pun- 
ish ; if there is open war, we seize ; and shall we lose the 
right to seize by reason of secret or covert war? It does 
seem to me, however, that, after seizing the offending ves- 
sels, we ought to detain them, ivithoiit punishment, until we 
know whether they are to be treated as malefactors, or as 
prisoners or prizes of war — not to let them loose to go to 
doing us all the harm they may be able to do, but to detain 
them as prisoners of war, or to punish them as offenders. 
But I believe I shall cease to tax you on the war ques- 
tion, which you doubtless understand too well to be enter- 
tained by anything I can say on it. I think Mr. Toombs' 
recent debates on the internal improvement question are 
crushingly powerful. I have been delighted with his 
speeches on that subject. In my humble judgment, no- 
body in this country, now or formerly, has ever understood 
that subject so well as he does. He, himself, gets better 
on it the longer his mind runs on it. It looks like a Her- 
culean labor — and so it is — but I do believe the power of 
his arguments will burst up the abominable system. It 
seems to me that the error is obliged to fall under the ter- 
rible battery he has opened upon it. He is fighting it 
alone, and I love to sec him stand as the solitary cham- 
pion. He is more than a match for them all 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, June 8, 1858. 

Dear Brother — Dickenson 

(my overseer) is very ill indeed. I wrote you yesterday 
that I had him brought up to my house to take care of him. 
He was delirious all night, last night, and is still so. He 



152 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

has no rationality about him, While I am writing, I have 
Travis with him to keep him from tearing off a blister which 
is drawing over his stomach and bowels. I have somebod\- 
with him all the while ; but nobody can control him, when 
I am away, but Travis. Poor fellow ! He is constant!)' 
talking about his crop, and wanting his hat and clothes to 
go to bu.siness. He is a very worthy young man, 1 think, 
and I am very sorry for him. I sent for his father this 
morning. He lives ten or twelve miles distant. 

Affectionately, Lixton Stkimiens. 

[From 1.. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, June 1 1, 1858. 

Dear Brother — Dickenson, poor fellow, is dead. He 
died last night a little after 10 o'clock. For more than 
sixty hours, he had lain without any rational connection in 
his thoughts, and he so continued to the last. He is to be 
buried thirteen or fourteen miles from here, and I am going 
to the burial. I want to return this evening, and go to my 
plantation to-morrow. I have seven or eight cases ot fever 
there, but none bad. I think poor Dickenson killed him- 
self by keeping up so long after he was attacked. I don't 
think that any of my negroes will have to encounter that 
difficulty. Under these circumstances, it will be out of my 
power to meet you at Crawfordville on your return home. 
I trust you will come over here immediately. I have al- 
ready written you that we are to have an adjourned court 
here, next Monday, to try cases of Mr. Thomas', wherein 
you are interested 

[From L. .S. to A. H. b. ] 

Sparta, July 2, 1858. 

Dear Brother — Yesterday, I was thirty-five years old — 
just the half-way house in the road allotted to life. Many 
break down long before they reach the goal, and very many 
before they attain the half-way house. How much longer 
I shall endure on the route, I cannot know 

In the summer of 1868, the two brothers took a recrea- 
tive journey to the Northwest, passing b)- and stopping at 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. » 153 

Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain, Nashville, Mammoth 
Cave, Louisville, Lexington, y\shland, where they were the 
guests of the Hon. James B. Clay, the son of the great 
statesman ; thence to Cincinnati, North Bend, Indianapolis. 
Terre Haute and Chicago, returning by the Illinois Central 
to Cairo, where they took steamer down the Mississippi to 
Memphis; thence they returned home by the Memphis &: 
Charleston Railroad, etc. , They were absent four or five 
weeks. This was the first travel, for recreation only, the 
elder brother had ever taken. The following letter refers, 
in part, to that travel : 

[From 1,. S. to R. M. Joliiistoii. J 

Sparta, September 3, 1858. 

My Dear Dick — Again I am about to leave home ; and 
one of the last things I shall do, before getting off, is to 
send you a word of remembrance and farewell. I have just 
finished a long letter to Cosby — the first one I have written 
him since he went up the country. He has written to me 
none at all. He had promised to write to me, and I had 
resolved not to write to him until he had fulfilled his prom- 
ise, but I have heard that the old fellow has been sick, and 
my heart softens towards him. He and John DeWitt arc 
now both at Dr. Connell's, and are both convalescent, as I 
hear. But I mustn't run off the handle at the start; for I 
haven't time to afford it; so I must, at once, answer some 
points in your last letter. I mentioned to Ellic the subject 
of his "speech," at Athens, the first time I saw him after 
getting your account of it. He professed to be very well 
satisfied with it: neither elated, as with a triumph, nor de- 
pressed under a sense of failure. He seemed to think that 
lie had got over a hard place in \ery good order; and fur- 
ther seemed to think that it was rather a sharp thing to do 
that. He insisted on my telling him what you had written 
me about the speech, and I rallied him on his anxiety about 
your report, as an evidence that his own complacency on 
the subject was assinned. He protested that it was a de- 
cent, respectable speech — though not exactly to be called 
a •'hit'"— and still insisted on hearing your account of it. 



154 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

I put him ofTby telling him I would read it to him the first 
time he should be at my house. He has been here once 
since, but did not call for the letter ; and so it now stands. 
You ask me about our Northwestern trip, and about Doug- 
las and his prospects. The trip was a pleasant one, and a 
very remarkable one in one respect: We travelled about 
twenty-five hundred miles, and never had an accident, never 
lost a connection between routes, and were not delayed one 
hour beyond the usual time of arrival at any place what- 
ever. I may have made the sairie remark to you in my 
last letter; for it is a thing that has rather dwelt on my 
mind. As for Douglas, we did not see him. We were ten 
days in Chicago, while Healy was painting our pictures, 
but Douglas was off in distant parts of the State, stumping 
for dear life. I rather thought he would succeed; but, re- 
ally, I formed no satisfactory opinion on the subject. I was 
very clear, however, that he oiigJit to succeed in the fight 
he has noiv on his hands. I certainly disapprove of his 
course on Lecompton as much as anybody does; but I do 
not like the mode of expressing my disapprobation of one 
act, by electing over his head another man who backed him 
to the fullest extent in that act — besides his many 
other damning sins from which Douglas is free. To beat 
him with a ivofse man is rebuking him, not for doing badly, 
but for not doing bad enough. Douglas is this day making 
a bold, gallant and manly fight against the Black Republi- 
can heresies of his opponent; and how any Southern man 
can wish to see his defiant plume go down in the conflict is 
passing strange to me ! He has my hearty sympathies in 
//;/.? fight I think some of the newspapers — Dem- 
ocratic as well as American — have made asses of themselves 
about Ellic's visit to Illinois. It had no more to do with 
Douglas' election than it had to do with the moon ; he 
talked about the election, and talked very freely, too, while 
he was there ; and so the moon shone on him while he was 
there, too; but he went there to talk about the election, 
just as much as he went there for the moon to shine on 
him, and no more. *It is a great outrage on decency and 
comfort, that a gentleman cannot be permitted to make a 
visit of recreation and pleasure without being dogged by 
the imputation of unworthy motives from friends as well as 
foes. It is a shame. But it is of no consequence; for 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 155 

nothing that has been said about it has j^ivcn him the least 
uneasiness. He took it as coolly as a duck takes a shower. 

I treated cases of typhoid fever among my negroes, and 
last night the third death occurred. All three who died 
were young and grown. There are two more very ill in- 
deed. I have taken such thorough precautions that I hope 
there will be no more cases. They have suffered greatly 
from disease and from alarm, and I do feel most deeply for 
them, and particularly for poor old Abram and Charlotte, 
who have lost two children, and now have another at 
death's door. The fatality in that particular family is 
stranfje ; for no two of them, who have died, resided in the 
same house, and one of them lived at Mr. Thomas , where 
no other case of the disease has occurred. He was striker 
in the blacksmith-shop, and only went home once a week 
to see his parents and brothers and sisters. Your old 
friend, Isaac, of the same family, has recovered from a hard 
spell. Kindest remembrance to your wife and all the chil- 
dren. Can't say now when I can be at Athens. 

As ever, most truly yours, Linton Stephens. 

The speech referred to in the foregoing letter, concern- 
ing the merits of which Mr. A. H. Stephens was curious to 
ascertain the opinion of Professor Johnston, was that deliv- 
ered before the Sophomore declaimers, at Athens, on acca- 
sion of presenting the prizes to the successful competitors. 

The canvass which Judge Douglas was then making — 
" stumping for dear life" — was tjie celebrated one in Illi- 
nois, between himself and Abraham Lincoln, for the United 
States Senatorship. The result was the election of a Dem- 
ocratic Legislature and the return of Douglas to the United 
States Senate. 

[ From L. S. to R. M. Johnston. ] 

Sparta, October 26, 1858. 

My Dear Dick — "Auld lang syne," when you and I 
were boys, some ill-natured person put out a report on my 



\$6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

old uncle Bird, that he had said that baptism with saf/d 
would do as well as baptism with water. The old fellow 
heard of it, and denounced the report as false ; indeed, he 
went, in the glow of his honest wrath, so far as to declare 
that it was a "d — d lie." Years afterwards, I asked him 
whether he had used the terrible epithet which I have just 
quoted. I shall never forget the grandeur of the old man 
as he rose and replied, "Yes, I did; and, cousin Linton, 
it 7i'(ts a d — d lie — it was so monstrous a lie that God Al- 
mighty condemned it as soon as it was uttered." Now, T 
have brought up this incident in the life of a good man, not 
for the sake of any parallel between it and anything which 
I am going to say, but simply as an authority for a little bit 
of "cussin," which I am about to perj^etrate, and which. I 
think, I can explain away as effectually, at least, as he ex 
plained away his. The remark which I had in contempla- 
tion to make, and which I do now utter, is simply this: 
You are a daiiuicdwYAW. The oft-quoted, ever-to-be-admired 
and immortal Shakspearc said (through the mouth of a 
character, to be sure, but still Shakspearc said it): 

"J^ay on, McDufT: 
And danind be hiin that first cries, ' Mold, enough ! " " 

Now, you and I have been for sometime " laying on " in 
scribbling to one another, and you have been the "first" 
to cry, "Hold, enough! " So. on the authority of the im- 
mortal bard, you arc "damned;" and, on the authority of 
a great man in Israel, I am authorized to pronounce you so. 
I do remember me. that, in some of my hasty effusions, T 
dropped an indiscreet intimation, to the effect that I did not 
expect you, in this the season of your business pressure, to 
answer all my scribblings; but surel}" you didn't take me to 
be in earnest, did you? I thought you were too well ac- 
quainted with that vile old sinner. Human Vanity, not to 
know that he has a favorite trick of covering himself with 
divers transparent pretensions to modesty and humility. 
{Resides, I said I did not expect you to answer all my scrib- 
blings, and you have presumed upon this to answer now. 
Why, you are worse than Lorenzo Dow said the Calvinists 
were. The Scriptures sa\-. "Come unto me all that are 
weary," etc. ; but he said the Calvinists construed this to 
mean, "Come unto me a part of ye," etc. ; and hence, his 



JUDGK LINTON STEPHENS. 157 

common designation of them was, "The, A — double 1 — a — 
part people." 1 said you needn't answer all, and you have 
construed it to mean that you needn't answer one : hence, 
you are an "A — double 1 — " one now; and so you are 
worse than the Calvinists, inasmuch as a part may embrace 
more than " one ; " and )'ou have, therefore, detracted 
more than they did from the natural fullness and glory of 
A — double 1 — all. " So you see what a bad fellow you are, 
and how fully justified I am in following old uncle Bird's 
example in dealing with your case. So readeth a part of 
the first chapter of the book of "Cussin," according to 
Bird, Shakspeare and Dow. Look out for the rest of it, 
unless you mend )-our waj-s, 

I sat down with the intention to give you a sketch of an 
amusing scene w hich I witnessed a few days ago between 
two of our lady friends; but the Uow part of my discourse 
was not anticipated at the start, and has run it to too great 
a length to leave room for anything else ; besides, as I have 
written so long a letter, with absolutely nothing in it, 1 have 
a fancy to keep it undefiled, even to the end, by a single 
semblance of anything which might mar the beauty of uni- 
formity. The only exception wliich I shall allow is in sub- 
scribing myself, 

Yours, most truK', Linton Stefhkn.s. 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, November 15, 1858. 

Dear Brother — I siiall probably 

not return home from Glasscock before going to Athens. 
1 have seven cases to represent at the Supreme Court, if 
Gibson should give me the brief in your Burkhalter case ; 
and I am defendant in error in all, except one from Hart — 
yes: there is another (making the eighth) from this county, 
tried by Judge Cabaniss, where 1 am for plaintiff in error. 
1 am also under a sort of promise to Tom Daniel to help 
him argue the Pierce Bailey ca.se ; but I think I shall not do 
it. I did not promise, but said I might do it, or something 
to that effect. 1 don't know anybody for whom hanging- 
would be so good as for old P , and the temptation 

is ver\' strong to put in against him. It seems to me that 
1 am obliged to gain all the cases, except the one from 



158 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

Hart; and as that was not my case until the present stage 
of it, I beheve I should not argue it but for one considera- 
tion : it would be too bad a thing for the court to allow one 
man to gain all his cases, having so many ; and I am rather 
glad, therefore, of one bad owq for them to throw off on. 
That one, I trust, will prove a safety-valve. My next 
weakest case is a new-trial case, from Warren. The Judge 
granted it ; but I am afraid they may reverse him. If that 
were my only case, I should be very confident of their sus- 
taining him ; but Pottle is against me in it, and he is against 
me in several others, which I am obliged to gain and he to 
lose. It is, therefore, dangerous. They will want to throw 
him a hone, and I am afraid they may make that bone out 
of my case. 

[ From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, December 4, 1858. 

Dear Brother — Your letter in 

relation to Harry, and the list of your notes, I have laid 
away with your will. Should it be the fortune of our lives 
for Harry to fall to my care, your injunctions shall be ob- 
served in regard to him, because they are your injunctions, 
and because my own estimate of Harry is not below yours. 
I sympathize most deeply in the vein of sadness which per- 
vades your letter. My heart was very full when I left your 
house, and I felt that it was nearly running over. I was 
almost on the point of telling you, as we lay in bed the 
night before, that I felt as if it were the last night we would 
ever spend together. I did feel so ; but I knew you were 
sad, and I forebore to say one word to make you more so. 
If I had given way at all, the dam would have burst and 
the flood swept through 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, December 5, 1858. 

Dear Brother — I have often 

told you of my observation about things going in streaks or 
schools. I had rather a striking instance of it the day I left 
you. I bought a horse once, and lent him to Jimmy Cox, 
at his request, and since then, I don't think I have ever had 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. ■ 1^9 

an application of exactly that kind until Mary made 

hers. Well, I gave her fifty dollars towards buying her a 
horse, the morning I left you. Before I got home, I met 

N P , and he wanted me to buy him a horse ; 

and when I got home, I found a letter from B B , 

wanting me to buy him a horse. Wasn't that a streak of 
applications, for one day, in the single article of horses? 

B B I flatly refused. I had already bought a 

tract of land and put him on it, and I was satisfied that he 
simply wanted me to maintain him in idleness. I signified 
as much to him in my answer — though not in the same 
words I have used about it now — and told him plainly that 
I had done quite as much as I intended to do. As for 

N , he assured me that what he wanted with a horse 

was to move Jihn to Florida, and I consented to oblige him 
upon the idea that it would be a good investnioit. He is to 
have the horse on the express condition that if he does not 
go to Florida, (I will, however, give him the full benefit of 
substituting any other place as far off,) the horse is to be 
taken back. In this adventure, Mr. Thomas and I are co- 
partners, entitled to equal profits, and bound to bear equal 

losses. Mr. Thomas says he knows that N intends 

to get the horse, and then have something to happen to 
him, so he can't get off; and it was he who insisted on the 
condition about returning the horse. He long ago declared 

that N should never have another cent out of him ; 

but when I proposed the horse-scheme, he said I had come 
at him in a shape that was irresistible, and he immediately 
bethought him that he himself had an old vmlc that would 
precisely answer the purpose. The reason why I proposed 

the matter to Mr. Thomas was, that N had already 

done so, as he informed me, and his request, as expressed 
to me, was, that Mr. Thomas and I jointly should furnish 
the horse. He assured me that if we would, just for this 
one time, overlook his wrong-doing towards us, (and he freely 
admitted it had been manifold and grievous,) he would go 
"clean off," and never be any further trouble to any of us. 

So I confidently expect soon to see N strike for the 

" Land of Flowers," drawn by a mule. I did not have the 
heart to ask him about the efficacy of his remedy for fits. 
Poor fellow ! He is incapable of taking care of himself, and 
he has just capacity enough to prevent anybody else from 



l6o BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

taking care of him. He has an idea that he is a badly used 
man, because people don't dix'idc their estates with him; 
and if it were done, he would come again in two years for 
another division. There are a great many very close ap- 
proximations to poor N , in this world ; but he is, on 

the whole, about the poorest specimen of his class that I 
ha\e ever encountered 

[From I,. S. to A. II. S. ] 

Sparta, December 14, 1858. 

Dear Brother — Whoop ! I am out of the wood.s — my 
Answer is finished — a long explanatory letter to Obadiah 
Gibson is finished — another to the Governor, and another 
to the Attorney-General, are all, all finished, and now lying 
before me, in three packages, ready for the mail ; and I 
have done it all in one day, sure enough, as 1 said I would, 
if 1 could get a fair lick at it; and it is a very small day's 
work at that. The Answer contains only six pages of this 
same sized paper on which I am now writing. 1 think I ha\'e 
packed it pretty well; and my Answer almost presents the 
argument. 1 don't mean to say that I think much of it, for 
1 do not. It is up to the case, but the case aint iiiiicli. 
When 1 got to the close of the last sentence above, except 
two, they called me to supper, and while I was at supper, 
Alfriend came. He has just gone, and it is now 9 o'clock. 
I have a notion of going to bed sooner to-night than usual, 
but how it may turn out is very doubtful. It is strange 
liow I do hate to go to bed, and how little I do sleep! 
Last night, the clock struck one before I got to sleep, and 
1 had then been in bed half an hour. I woke just after 
three, and lay awake until 1 heard it strike six. After that, 
I got the most of my sleep. Last night was a pretty fair 
sample of the rest. The children al.so woke last night while 
I was restless and wakeful ; but, supposing that every- 
body else was buried in profoundest slumber, little Emm 
suddenly struck up a xong. I never heard her sing before, 
and I thought it was Claude, who is quite a singer. So I 
called Claude, but there was no answer; the little one 
turned into calling her. too — "Cordy, " (so she calls her,) 
" papa call you, Cordy!" and she soon had Claude, and 
Beckv, too, awake with her. No light was struck, how- 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. l6l 

ever, and they all soon again subsided into silence and 
sleep. Not so I. What more shall I write? I know not, 
unless I pursue the present theme by giving you some of 
the annoyances v/hich keep me from sleep, or wake me 
from it. I am reminded of them by Sport's squealing ■aX this 
moment, and in the saloon. He literally squeals; it comes 
a sudden, sharp, piercing squeal, which would infallibly 
wake me, though it doesn't seem to affect other people so. 
The cause of it is pains in his ear. It is very annoying to 
me, but my pity always predominates over my vexation. 
I am truly sorry for the poor dog, and he often leads me to 
remember poor Rio, too, in sorrow and pity. Another of 
my evil genii is William's snoring. I can sleep under one 
of his cannonades about as well as I could if a saw-mill was 
making planks out of my body ; but my main one is sleep- 
lessness. Oh, the miserable, wakeful hours I have spent in 
trying to drop the burden of the day, and get rid of thought 
in the blessed oblivion of sleep ! And then, when nature 
can maintain the struggle no longer, and at last takes refuge 
in slumber, how brief the respite often is ! Dreams come, 
and sometimes take up and carry on the weary thoughts of 
the day, or introduce strange vagaries of their own, which 
are often not less tormenting; but, after all, the dreams 
have a balancing in them ; for some of them are far sweeter 
than sights or sounds that greet me during the day; some, 
too, are so strange as to entertain me afterwards with their 
unaccountable whimsicalness. I dreamed, for instance, a 
few nights ago, that you and I were dining with Judge 
Story — nobody else present. He brought a bottle (which 
I thought was wine, of course) and said, "Here is a bottle 
of first-rate dondy,'' (that's the word, "dondy, ") and I 
thought, what is "dondy?" but you immediately said, 
" Linton, I have often told you o{ dondy, and now you must 
drink some." I thought it very curious that you should 
say you had often told me of what I had never heard men- 
tioned before in my life ; and, still thinking it was some 
kind of wine or spirits, I thought it was no less strange that 
you should urge me (as your manner did) to drink it. I 
tasted it, and said it tasted like apple-jelly; whereupon, you 
and the Judge laughed very heartily. Why you laughed, 
I never knew ; and, to this hour, I am utterly unenlight- 
ened, by dreams or other agency, as to what "dondy" is. 
i6 



l62 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

Such was that dream — pointless vagary — and yet, it woke 
me ; and long was it before I again fell to sleep. Life is a 
weary, weary thing to me ! But I am going to bed soon 
to-night; and so good-bye. 

Affectionately, Linton Stephens. 

In January, 1859, ^^^- Stephens went on to Washington 
City to argue the case of Alabama ts. Georgia, then pend 
ing in the Supreme Court of the United States. From 
that city, he writes to his friend Johnston : 

Washington, D. C, January 13, 1S59. 
My Dear Dick — Your letter of the 8th instant was re- 
ceived to-day, saying that you expected to return to Athens 
the following Monday. Already, no doubt, you have gone 
from Sparta. At my distance from both places, it might 
seem that it would be a matter of indifference with me at 
which place you may be, but it is not so. It is a sad thing 
to think you have gone away from the place that knew you 

so well Has the obituary notice of 

your mother yet appeared in the Christian Index ? I sup- 
pose it appeared in the paper which ought to have come to 
Sparta the day before I left home, but which had not come 
when I left. I expected it to appear in the paper of the 

week before, as it had time to do, but it did not 

The case which I came here to try cannot be heard until 
the second Monday in February, and may not be heard 
then. The opposite side have proposed to me that as their 
earliest time, and it will be accepted by our side, if Gibson 
consents. He is not here, and has given me no intimation 
of an intention to come. I find that the time of hearing 
cases of original jurisdiction (in which only .States and 
public ministers are parties, you know) is fixed by consent, 
out of deference to the dignity of the parties concerned ; 
and I, of course, do not feel at liberty to agree to any time 
without consulting my associate. I am almost tempted to 
say that I will not argue it until the second Monday in next 
December, and go straight home. I shall remain here a few 
days longer to make up my mind on that point, and in the 
hope of getting some money from home wherewith to buy 
some books. Speaking of books: I have not bought either of 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 163 

the two novels which you commended to me. I inquired 
in all the book-stores here for "Debit and Credit," but none 
of them had it. For the life of me, I could not think of 
the name of the other one; and so, as yet, I don't know 
whether they have Wilhelm Meister's "Apprenticeship " or 
not. When I finish this letter, and one or two more to 
those at home, I shall take another excursion among the 
book-stores to find out — being now refreshed, as to the 
name, by your letter. I delivered your message to Ellic 
about your expectation, founded on a parting promise, that 
he would write to you. He said he had a distinct recollec- 
tion of the parting interview between him and you, and that 
Jiis understanding was that yon were to write first. I sim- 
ply replied, that when a fellow is caught in a scrape from 
his own remissness, there is noth'ing more natural than for 
him to try to at least divide the blame with somebody else 
by getting up a squabble — at which he laughed — and so it 
passed off with an additional remark from him, that he had 
thought of writing to you very often, and had wondered 
why he had not heard from you. Your letter was my first 
news of Fed Brooking's death. Poor old fellow! There is 
more and more desolation. Most deeply do I feel for his 
poor old mother; she is now ruined and forlorn. Life is 
despoiled of all its beauty, and her little remnant of exist- 
ence is but a mockery of life. Her poor, tottering frame 
will linger among us yet a little while, but her heart is not 
here. ' ' Her heart is awa' ! her heart is awa' ! " May God 
have mercy upon the stricken hearts everywhere that will 

mourn, and will not be comforted ! If I had 

been elected to Congress the first race, I should have liked 
it, I have but little doubt; but I am now satisfied that it 
would not have suited me since then, nor ever will suit me 

again. Good-bye 

Yours, most truly, Linton Stephens. 

_ [ From L. S. to R. M. Johnston. ] 

Washington, D. C, January 22, 1859. 

My Dear Dick — I am glad that you had decided to send 
to this place your answer to my last letter ; for, sure enough, 
I was still here this morning to receive and welcome it. It 
did me much good, because it breathes such strong and 



164 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

friendly interest in my welfare Without 

an accident, I shall start home Monday night next. Yes- 
terday, we took an order of court, setting our case down 
for a hearing on the second Monday of next December. I 
should have started home last night but for the prospect 
of spending Sunday at the dull little place, called Kings- 
ville, in South Carolina. The weather also is bad for trav- 
eling just now. There was a great fall of rain here yester- 
day ; and, in consequence of it, brother expresses some ap- 
prehensions about the safety of the railroads. It will, how- 
ever, have to be very extraordinary v/eather which detains 
me longer than Monday night — this being Saturday — so 
your next must be sent to Sparta — sent home. I got a 
letter, last night, telling me that my children were well. I 
have been disappointed in the pleasure of my sojourn here, 
and yet, I am loth to leave. Night before last, I heard the 
famous Piccoloniini. She is a good singer, but her chief 
charms are outside of her singing: it is her beauty and her 
acting. The latter is admirable. She sang a little English 
song — "I Dreamt I dwelt in Marble Halls," etc. — and her 
acting in it was irresistible — coquettish and winning in a 
high degree. Her pouting was capital. I was pleased with 
her far beyond my expectations, and beyond the pleasure 
I ever received from any other musical wonder. I have 
been to see Mrs. Craig twice since I have been here She 
is staying at the President's. I saw Miss Lane both times. 
I like her very much. She is sensible, modest, and, I 
should think, very amiable 

In May, 1859, J^^S^ Charles J. McDonald, in conse- 
quence of advancing age and infirmity, resigned the posi- 
tion he occupied and adorned on the Supreme Bench of 
Georgia. Governor Brown appointed Linton Stephens to 
fill the vacancy thereby occasioned. He was the youngest 
man that ever sat upon the bench of that court in Georgia — 
he had not completed his thirty-sixth year ; he was the 
youngest lawyer — he had been at the Bar but little over 
thirteen years ; and, in the opinion of many, competent to 
pronounce upon the subject, the ablest Judge: high enco- 
mium ; yet, I believe, severely just. His published deci- 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1 65 

sions are models of logic — cogent, compact, Attic — the per- 
fection of judicial eloquence. But his claim and title to the 
character of a great judge have been portrayed by a pen — 
dipped in the "Well of old English, undefiled " — of one 
whose intimate knowledge of the subject he handles — per- 
fect candor, sharp, critical acumen, and rare fitness, in all 
respects, for such a performance — will relieve the tedium 
of my narrative : I gladly avail myself of the obliging kind- 
ness of the Hon. Logan E. Bleckley, long the learned head 
of the Atlanta Bar — now Associate Justice of the Supreme 
Court of Georgia — for the following: ' 

Estimate of Hon. Linton Stephens as a Judge, Founded 
ON HIS Judicial Opinions, Published in the Georgia Re- 
ports. Vols. 28, 29 and 30: 

It was not the lot of Judge Stephens to occupy the bench 
at a time when exceptionably great questions were pre- 
sented to the Supreme Court for adjudication. Indeed, it 
may be doubted whether the points that came before him, 
taken in the aggregate, were of average magnitude or mo- 
ment. He delivered not a single opinion on the principles 
of Constitutional law. Only three times did he have occa- 
sion even to mention the Constitution — twice in discussing 
the agreement of statutes with their titles, and once in the 
still more narrow inquiry as to what term of the court, with 
reference to the return of writs of error, was to be regarded 
as the first term, and the effect of failure to make return in 
due season. The cases with which he dealt were such only 
as make their appearance in ordinary times, and represent 
the ordinary current of judicial business, touching cohtracts, 
wills, crimes, the practice of the courts, and the duty of 
officers. He was thus without the advantage of great pub- 
lic questions upon which to ibund a reputation. Neither 
was he long enough in office to add anything to his judicial 
stature by the mere force of experience and continued ser- 
vice. He presided, altogether, but a little more than one 
year, having come in with May term, 1859, and gone out 
with June term, i860. What mark he made as a judge was 
due, therefore, to what he was when he came to the bench — 



1 66 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

to his learning as a lawyer, and his sheer fitness for judicial 
functions — not, in any degree, to the materials on which he 
wrought, or to long-continuance in labor. His early opin- 
ions are quite as good as his later ones — the first as good as 
the last. Indeed, he was ripe and ready for the bench at 
his first sitting,, and needed no judicial education. He was 
not a pupil, but a master. 

In the second month of his service, a case was decided 
by a majority of the court contrary to his views of the law ; 
and his dissenting opinion (the only one which he ever had 
occasion to deliver) is a model of strength and clearness. 
The case was that of Hill vs. The State, reported in 28 Ga. 
R. , 604; and the rule for which he contended was, that on 
an indictment for murder, charging the prisoner with the 
ofiense as principal in the first degree, it was not compe- 
tent to convict him if, in fact, he was guilty as a principal 
in the second degree. He insisted that there is a substan- 
tial difference, under our penal code, between being the 
actual perpetrator of the crime, and being present, aiding 
and abetting in its commission by another. The reasons 
for his dissent from the judgment of his learned colleagues 
are so forcible in themselves, and stated by him with such 
overwhelming power, that they have exerted a controlling 
influence over subsequent decisions of the court. See 36 
Ga. R., 222; 40 Ga. R., 120. It is, perhaps, not going too 
far to say that the majority opinion, in so far as it conflicts 
with his, stands virtually overruled, and that the principle 
of his opinion is now established as law. In announcing 
his conclusion, that the verdict ought to be set aside, 
there is a degree of pith and point in his language quite 
characteristic: "The verdict is not the truth. I do not 
know what more can be said against any verdict." An- 
other able opinion, which he delivered in the same month, 
was upon the question, whether a deed to land, made in the 
face of adverse possession, was void? On this point, there 
had been early decisions in the affirmative, and later ones 
in the negative — the former on the line of Judge Lumpkin's 
opinion, and the latter on the line of Judge Benning's. 
Judge Stephens agreed with Judge Lumpkin, and thus re- 
stored the early rule ; but he placed his judgment entirely 
on the common law, and not at all on the adoption of the 
statute of 32 Henry VIIL He was not the first judge to 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 167 

suggest the application of the common law to the question, 
but was the first to turn the statute of Henry out of the 
dispute. The unanswerable argument of Judge Benning 
against the application of that statute to the condition and 
circumstances of our Colonial population, commanded his 
concurrence and frank acknowledgment ; but he contended, 
nevertheless, that conveyances made by a claimant, out of 
possession, while an adverse claimant was in possession, 
were void by a rule of the common law, and that the rule 
(not as modified by the statute, but the naked rule itself) 
came over with our ancestors, an^ was applicable to their 
situation. In a few pointed sentences, he demonstrated 
the policy of discouraging, in a new country, trade in occu- 
pied lands, under circumstances where immediate posses- 
sion could not be given to the purchaser, and of inducing 
purchasers to push out into vacant territory and get land 
itself, instead of the mere chance for it at the end of a pro- 
tracted and expensive litigation. See 29 Ga. R., 121. 

Judge Benning, who was so well prepared on the statute 
of Henry, took time to consider before settling down into 
a final position on this theory in reference to the common 
law. After examination, he hurled at it his powerful dis- 
senting opinion, in Gresham 7's. Webb and Williams, 29 
Ga. R. , 320; but the doctrine stood as established, until 
changed by act of the Legislature. From the time of this 
last case until the present, it has never been made a ques- 
tion before the Supreme Court, whether, prior to the new 
statute, a deed executed, pending an adverse holding, was or 
was not void. From this circumstance, the inference may be 
drawn that the argument of Judge Stephens was convincing 
to the professional mind of the State, and that even the 
great ability of Judge Benning failed to supply the logic 
and learning requisite for successful reply. 

In January, i860, was decided the case of Jones vs. The 
State, 29 Ga. R., 594 — the case, of all others, which will 
probably be the longest associated with the name and fame 
of Judge Stephens. The main cjuestion was, as to the 
meaning of the rule that drunkenness is no excuse for crime ; 
and Judge Stephens, in the splendid opinion which he de- 
livered for a majority of the court, (himself and Judge 
Lumpkin,) undertook to show how and why drunkenness, 
as a fact, may be allowed to avail the accused, even upon 



1 68 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

the question of malice, without trenching, in the least, upon 
that rule, properly understood. That drunkenness might 
be urged to disprove the physical constituents of crime, was 
probably never doubted ; but with reference to the mental 
constituents, the distinction between ascertaining them and 
excusing them has not always been discerned. It was the 
great achievement of Judge Stephens, in this opinion, to 
bring out that distinction, and display it in the broadest 
legal daylight. Until there is a case of crime ascertained \\\ 
all its elements — mental as well as physical — there is noth- 
ing to excuse ; and so long as the process is one of investi- 
gation, and not of palliation, the drunkenness of the ac- 
cused, just as any other fact, may be relevant on either 
branch, or on both branches, of the alleged criminal action. 
Not to screen the accused from responsibility for what he 
has done, but to find out exactly what his deed was, and 
how to grade it in the scale of legal offenses, which scale is 
precisely the same for all, whether drunk or sober, is the 
purpose for which drunkenness is to be considered. What- 
ever demerit there is in drunkenness, it is not to be stripped 
of the protection which everything in God's universe is en- 
titled to claim — the protection of truth. If, in very truth, 
there was a crime, notwithstanding the drunkenness, then 
should drunkenness count as nothing; but if the fact of 
drunkenness shows there was no crime, or would have been 
none if the same mental and physical elements had coin- 
cided without the drunkenness, then should the drunken- 
ness, as evidence, though not as excuse, furnish a ground 
of acquittal. 

Without reading carefully the opinion of Judge Stephens 
in this case, it is quite impossible for any person to take 
his full measure as a judge. It may be doubted whether 
half a dozen of his contemporaries on the bench could have 
written that opinion. 

Two classes of persons are, however, liable to misunder- 
stand it, and misconceive its whole scope and bearing: 
these are the very inattentive and the very timid. If it is 
not read with attention, it will break into fragments ; and, 
to be comprehended, being a connected argument, its con- 
nections must be preserved. So, if it be read by one in a 
nervous state of apprehension, as to the danger of tender- 
ness to drunken men, it will probably fail of its due effect, 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1 69 

through seeming, to a mind in such a state, more tender to 
them than it really is. 

The capacity of Judge Stephens to construe conveyances, 
and apply the dry law of estates, may be seen by reference 
to the following cases: Brown vs. Weaver, 28 Ga^ R., 377; 
Adams z's. Guerrard, 29 Ga. R., 65 i ; Mason i>s. Deese, 30 
Ga. R. , 308; Burton 7'5. Black, z"^ 638 ; Tennille z^s. Ford, 
id 707 ; and Springer vs. Congleton, id gyd. The opinion 
in Burton z's. Black is especially able, and, both in sub- 
stance and in style, would have satisfied Lord Coke himself. 
There is reason to think that, in the estimation of Judge 
Stephens, that opinion ranked above any other which he 
ever delivered — not excepting even the one in Jones vs. 
The State. An example of an interesting question, well 
treated, in less than two pages, is seen in Springer z's. Con- 
gleton. Very many of the minor opinions are well worthy 
of notice, though but few of them can be commented on here. 
Striking sentences occur in several, not to quote some of 
which would be to omit touches essential to accuracy in 
drawing the portrait which this paper is designed to reflect. 
In one case, he says: " We think there was a capital judge, 
but no law." 29 Ga., 56. In another: "Argumentative- 
ness may be a good objection against an answer, but it will 
scarcely serve against a .speech;" and "He who has rea- 
sons for his judgment is, at least, as good a witness as he 
who has none." /d 82. In another: "Communications 
between husband and wife are protected forever. This is 
necessary to the preservation of that perfect confidence and 
trust v\^hich should characterize and bless the relation of 
man and wife. Each must feel that the other is a safe and 
sacred depository of all secrets ; and the protection which the 
law holds over the dead is the very source of greatest secu- 
rity to all the living. " * Id ^yo. In another: " Estates, like 
everything else in life, are generally better off in the hands 
of their friends than in the hands of their enemies." Id 5 19. 



'•'This sentence occurs in the judgment of the court, pronounced in the 
case of Lingo vs. The State ; he was indicted for murder. Those present 
when it was delivered can never forget how Judge Stephens thrilled the 
audience, by the awful grandeur of his manner, when he uttered the 
words: "Thank God! there is no running law in Georgia I " The sen- 
tence does not appear in the printed decision. — Ed. 



170 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

In another: "The law does allow the owner, overseer or 
employer of the slave to furnish him such quantity as the 
ozvner, overseer ox e)nployer mdiy deem beneficial to the slave's 
health ; but the law has not done so foolish a thing as to 
put this same discretion in him who sells the spirits, nor 
can it be put there by delegation from him who has it. If 
it were placed there, the quantity supplied would generally 
depend much less upon its reasonableness or healthfulness 
than upon the amount of money the slave might happen to 
have. How many'<vendors would consider that a purchaser 
was transcending the limits of reason, or health, so long as 
he was paying for all he got?" Id 522. In another: "It 
was said that any girl, with or without an estate, has a right 
to get relieved of a toothache, and make her guardian pay 
for it. If this doctrine is conceded in favor of gallantry, 
(and it can hardly be conceded on any other score,) still, 
some care must be taken not to make the guardian pay for 
anything but relieving the toothache. Now, it is very pos- 
sible that the toothache, in this young lady's case, could 
have been relieved, as the toothache of her grandmother 
had no doubt often been relieved, by a plug of cotton with 
a little laudanum on it, instead of fine plugs of gold." 30 
Ga. , 35. In another: "Surely there ought to be some 
compensation for the suffering endured. The pain from 
the wounds must have been great, and the dread of the ap- 
proaching collision between the two engines, though brief, 
must have been terrible. Mental agony has been known 
to turn a head gray in a night, and gray hairs are often but 
tlie effervescence of some great mental anguish." Id 146. 
In another: "Proof of hand-writing is, in its nature, the 
identification of an acquaintance." Id ^y6. In another: 
" What more verity is there in a gesture, or exclamation of 
surprise, than in plain words, expressing the same emotion? 
It would be exceedingly difficult to distinguish this from 
the case of spoken language; it is acted language — the one 
being quite as voluntary as the other." 29 Ga., 285. In 
another: "A privy in estate is a successor to the same 
estate — not to a different estate in the same property." Id 
374. In another: "The question I ask is, whether all 
promises on which the parties rely must not be in the writ- 
ing — I do not mean representations ? These last relate to the 
truth of existing or past facts, and not to engagements in the 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. I/I 

future — but promises, if they are to have any efficacy, must 
have it in the future." Id 461. In another: "The pen- 
alty falls not on him who shoots and kills, but on him who 
shoots and misses. Its penalty, therefore, seems to be 
leveled at dad s/ioo/in^." 28Ga. ,395. In another: "But 
it was said they had ceased to be counsel when they were 
served. The reply is, that under the statute prescribing 
service on attorneys, for the purpose of receiving service, 
they coiddiit cease." 29 Ga. , 29. 

The opinion in Bowie vs. Maddoxand Goldsmith, 29 Ga., 
285, deserves attention as a specimen of carving all the law 
in the case, as it were, into slices, with a few strokes of the 
knife, and making an end of the matter at once. Three 
points are not only ruled, but reasoned out exhaustively, in 
less than a page and a quarter. Roddy and Wife vs. Cox, 
id 298, shows how the body of a case can be squeezed until 
the points protrude like broken bones. Prince and Stafford 
vs. The State, 30 Ga. , 27, shows as tight a grip — not used 
for exposing points, but for deciding: "It may be that a 
riot was brewing; but, if so. Prince spoiled the riot by an 
assault and battery. " Id. 

Among the most excellent opinions is that in Lively vs. 
Harwell, 29 Ga. , 509, touching the revocation and probate 
of wills. In stating the views of himself and Judge Ben- 
ning, on a point not directly in judgment — namely, whether 
the simple revocation of a subsequent will revives a prior 
revoked one — he makes a presentation of the reason for 
holding the negative, that ought to settle the question 
for all time in all parts of the world. Nothing can possibly 
be more conclusive. 

Though he delivered but one dissenting opinion, proper, 
he differed with a majority of the court upon one of the 
points in another case — that of Ector vs. Welsh and lector. 
29 Ga., 443. The point was one of practice, and turned 
on the construction of a statute which declared that, unless 
exceptions to interrogatories and the answers of witnesses, 
examined under commission, were taken and determined 
before submitting the case to the jury, the testimony should 
be received, subject only to objections for inrlevancy. He 
contended that hearsay was to be treated as irrelevant tes- 
timony, and was open to objection at any time on that 
ground. The argument which he made on this line, drawn 



172 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

from the object and purpose ot the statute, is very cogent, 
and, in the absence of anything to countervail it, from the 
other members of the court, seems absohitely convincing. 

In still another case — Mason vs. Deese, 30 Ga. , 308 — 
each one of the judges had his separate views, and the 
judgment was formed by Judge Stephens yielding to the 
course favored by Judge Lumpkin, which was a kind of 
middle ground. The question was on the construction of 
a marriage settlement, and related to the exclusion of the 
husband from the property after the wife's death. Judge 
Stephens thought he was excluded ; Judge Lyon thought 
he was not; and Judge Lumpkin thought it was not clear 
either way, on the face of the instrument, and that the 
paper should be referred to a jury for construction in the 
light of the surrounding circumstances. This was done. 
In all other instances of a divided court, the concurring 
judges were Stephens and Lumpkin — the dissenting judge, 
Benning or Lyon. 

The whole number of opinions delivered by Judge Ste- 
phens is one hundred and fifty-three ; and, assuming that 
his colleagues each delivered as many, the cases in 
which he presided would number about four hundred and 
fifty. One hundred and thirty of his opinions contain no 
citation of authority. Those citing authority refer chiefly 
to the Georgia Reports; Blackstone is cited three times; 
Jarman on Wills, twice; Story on Agency, twice; Adams 
on Ejectment, once ; and an English Common Law Report, 
once. He respected authority, but the use he had for it 
was as a guide to principles — not as a prop on which to rest 
his judgments. When the principles were found, he rested 
his judgment on timti, and not on the authorities that had 
led to their discovery. When he could render a legal rea- 
son, he preferred to state the reason itself rather than cite 
the volumes and pages from which he had drawn it. He 
thus gratified his taste for brevity and directness; for he 
had the power of condensing the substance of many au- 
thorities into a few sentences ; and, I doubt not, he was 
averse to that appearance of judicial pedantry which be- 
longs to parading books and cases in long strings of cita- 
tion. I am tempted to think that he must have prescribed 
to himself some vp-" rigid rule on the subject; for there is 
nothing more striking than the extreme rareness of his di- 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1/3 

rect appeals to authority; yet, he made calls for it more 
than once, not satisfied with what had been produced. See 
29 Ga., 310, 449, 465, 469, 470. His precise position with 
reference to precedents may be understood by quoting from 
his opinions. In one case, he says: "I thought, and still 
think, that the case is not within that statute, upon a sound 
and safe construction of it ; but my colleagues informed me 
that a different construction had prevailed in the courts for 
a great number of years, and with entire uniformity, to the 
extent of their knowledge on the subject. I was not pre- 
pared to dispute it, and, therefore, acquiesced in what 
seemed to be established by authority." 30 Ga., 8. In 
another case, in refusing to interfere with a former decision 
of the court, he says: "Without considering its original 
propriety, the decision ought to be maintained now. It was 
made nine years ago, and attracted the universal attention 
of the profession at the time. The Legislature, with full 
knowledge of the decision for nine years, not having changed 
the law declared by it, may fairly be considered as having 
acquiesced in it. The great body of the common law derives 
its authority from the decisions of courts and legislative ac- 
quiescence in them. " Id 2^2. In another case : ' ' Wheth- 
er the rule be a reasonable one or not is not the question ; 
it is too firmly fixed in the law to be disturbed by courts. 
It is a case for the Legislature only." Id 280. But, in his 
estimation, there were two classes of precedents — one of 
them strong and the other very feeble. On page 104, of 
the 29th Georgia Reports, he says: "A decision, pro- 
nounced upon full argument and consideration, is justly en- 
titled to great weight — indeed, to a controlling influence on 
subsequent decisions ; but such decisions as this court, from 
the nature of its organization, is sometimes obliged to ren- 
der, without argument and on short consideration, ought, 
in my judgment, to carry but slight authority for subse- 
quent decisions." His view of the relation of principle to 
precedent is admirably stated in the same volume on page 
515: " Where a principle is sound, it ought to be carried to 
all strictly analogous cases, unless stringent authority for- 
bids ; but if the principle be unsound, analogy ought not to 
be allowed to carry it to a single case beyond the impera- 
tive demands of authority — the cases in which it has been 
already planted by decisions." 



174 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

The legal force and literary excellence of his opinions are 
so interwoven that they strike the attention in almost equal 
degree. He had the grace, as well as the power, of logic ; 
his strength was chaste and elegant. Never ornate, but 
always correct, he makes the impression of an artist who is 
so masterly in drawing that he has no use for colors. He 
simply engraves — never paints. That his mind was sharp 
without being narrow, and broad without being blunt, con- 
stituted, I think, his great intellectual characteristic. When 
he concentrated, he did not contract ; and when he expanded, 
he did not become vague. His thoughts moved, with equal 
vigor and accuracy, inward to the very center, or outward 
to the very circumference. He could both grasp and pierce ; 
he seized his logical prey, and then slaughtered it. However 
extended the outlines of his subject, he reached out to them 
in all directions, and penetrated every inward part. P^ven 
his briefest opinions are exhaustive. The beginning and 
the end may be ever so close, but you feel that what lies 
between them is all that shouki have been interposed — that 
greater fullness would have been artificial cramming, and 
not natural growth. There is a staid relevancy in all he 
writes — no straying mto sentiment, and no swelling into 
passion. You would not know, from anything he has re- 
corded, that he had any hopes or fears, any pity, any anger, 
any indignation — or that he knew of any abuses to correct, 
or any reforms to introduce. He champions no cause, no 
class, and attacks nothing but error in the record. The 
prominent moral trait which he discloses to us is love of 
trittJi, evincing, in himself, perfect truthfulness of character. 
He was genidiie, through and through — no counterfeit — no 
pretender — no humbug. 

Such a man was fit and worthy to preside in any court; 
and had he made judicial administration the chief labor of 
his life, he would have gone down to posterity as a very 
illustrious judge, 

L. E. Bleckley. 

When Mr. Stephens was appointed to the office of Just- 
ice of the Supreme Court, one partisan gazette in the State 
expressed strong dissatisfaction thereat; the burthen of 
complaint and criticism was ' ' the atrocious crime of being 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1/5 

a young man," as the elder Pitt said in his reply to Wal- 
pole. 

One person of the legal profession, commenting on the 
appointment and the appointee, said, in language he deemed, 
doubtless, classical, but which "Cosby" certainly consid- 
ered coarse: "Stephens is a leather-headed fop." 

Professor Johnston furnished to another newspaper, in 
vindication of the prudence and propriety of Governor 
Brown's action, "the piece " alluded to in the following 
letter: 

Sparta, June 4, 1859. 

Dear Dick — The date at which I am actually writing is 
the loth; but I preserve the caption, which I truly dated 
the 4th, in order that you may see the beginning of a good 
intention, which broke down sadly early on the road. I 
wrote "Dear Dick," supposing that I had plenty to say, 
but in truth not a word could I summon to my aid. I was 
lazy — incontinently lazy, as the malicious world would say — 
but I, understanding the matter much better than the world, 
only choose to say that I was dull, heavy and stupid ; and, 
to confess the truth, I am not much better off now. . . . 

Dick, your piece about me is very kind and very hand- 
some; but I do believe there is hardly more than one or 
two other men in the world who would have laid it on so 
tJiick. It was just like you ; but I am perfectly, unaffect- 
edly sincere in saying that I believe you said more for me 
than I deserve. I think you are in a woful minority in your 
opinions of me — I mean, in the extent to which you go. 
P^erybody knows who wrote it. The initials, of course, 
• give a ready clue to the authorship; but I do believe, Dick, 
that it has stronger ear-marks than the initials — and every- 
body would have known it anyhow. One thing surprised 
me a little: and that was the exactness with which you 
stated facts in my history. I didn't suppose that some of 
the things you mention had made any abiding impression 
on the mind of anybody. Your facts will do ; but when it 
comes to your opinions and judgments, let me say, that if 
you are ever called on to make affidavit to them, I beg you 
to qualify, very decidedly, with the legal phrase, "Accord- 



176 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

ing to the best of my knowledge and belief," and especially 
your "belief;" for truly, I believe, in this case, your faith 
is very superior to your knowledge. I feel as if you had 
stuck a false label on me ; and I feel very much like a pre- 
tender, unless I proclaim, as I go along, that yon have done 
it, and that I am not responsible for it, and don't believe in 
it. But, by the way, was ever Wirt a judge? I think 
not ; but I may be mistaken. I see that Gaskill, of the 
Atlanta Intelligencer, gives the piece his indorsement very 
heartily, from his knowledge of you ; and I see, also, that 
he says the Opposition Griffin paper ' ' has been pitching 
into me in a very uncalled-for and unkind manner." I don't 
mind that ; for I don't know the fellow, and the best part 
of it is, he doesn't know me. He said he understood that 

Judge H , when the news of my appointment reached 

Newnan, said I was a "leather-headed fop." Cosby was 
iiiiglity mad about it. The fact is, the old fellow turned 
pale when he told me about it. He seemed in much better 
spirits, and took a new and brighter viev/ of the subject 
when he saw me laugh and make merry over it. If the 
Judge had contented himself with the "leather-headed," he 
might have hurt me ; but when he stuck on the " fop," the 
thing became preposterous. That showed malice; and I 
know he was speaking not from knowledge, but from envy. 
Malice, like ambition, often, and most generally, overleaps 
itself A moderate thrust might have gone home; but the 
very fury of the blow carried it over my head. When he 
calls me a "leather-headed fop," I laugh at him; but if he 
had simply called me "leather-headed," I suspect I should 
feel inclined to knock him. You remember the anecdote of 
Mr. Petigru : When a fellow called him a liar, he passed it 
by as a thing nobody would believe; but when the fellow 
said he was a ' ' d — d old Federalist, " he knocked him down ; 
for he said he didn't know but what some people might be 
d — d enough fools to believe it 

The following reminiscences, furnished by Professor John- 
ston, give an insight into the milder features of Mr. Stephens' 
character: his pure and hearty domestic affections ; his true 
and rare social virtues ; his high and delicate appreciation 
of the offices of friendship, and of the more sacred relations 
and duties, whereof Home is the endeared exemplification : 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1/7 

Pen Lucy, Waverly, Md., October 17, 1873. 

My Dear Colonel — I have been thinking of your re- 
quest that I should send you some "reminiscences" of our 
departed friend, Linton Stephens. I hardly know where to 
begin, and what are the things most suitable to speak about 
in the case of such a man as Linton Stephens. If I could 
be with }'ou, and we could have time for a long talk, I have 
no doubt that I could interest you with many anecdotes of 
his private life, and then you might afterwards so frame 
them as to make them interesting to the public in your 
forthcoming memoir. I can scarcely hope to do so in the 
limited time at my disposal for this purpose. 

But I conclude to send you a short sketch as I knew him 
at lioiiie. I do this more readily, because, with all my ad- 
miration for the position which he held in public, it was 
while he was at home that I admired him most. Nor was 
this great admiration due only, or mostly, to our long inti- 
mate, and never-broken, and never-interrupted friendship. 
Such a friendship, indeed, gave me opportunities superior 
to those of most men, even among his neighbers, of seeing 
and knowing what he was in private ; but had I been less 
intimate with him, I could not have failed, while hving so 
long in his neighborhood, to see and know enough of the 
life which he led there to fully justify the preference which I 
have expressed. Though he and I were born in a few miles 
of each other, yet, from the fact of our having been sent to 
different schools and colleges, we clid not become acquainted 
until after we had grown up and come to the bar. Being a 
year or two younger than myself, he came in a little later. 
When he first began to attend our Hancock courts, at Sparta, 
I was then a partner of the late Judge James Thomas, whose 
only daughter, Mrs. Bell, Linton married in the year 1852. 
He then made Sparta, as you know, his home, and ever 
afterwards resided there. Before this time, however, our 
intimacy had begun, and with it the love and admiration 
on my part, both of which steadily increased to the last. 
I well remember how I was first impressed by his manners, 
and that I little expected to be ever so related to him as I 
afterwards became. His sternness of countenance, with his 
usual taciturnity, and his apparent entire disregard of the 
value of making a good impression on the minds of others 
when he spoke at all, induced me to regard him as misan- 

17 



178 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

thropical, and to suspect him to be incapable of forming 
strong attachments to persons or things ; but I soon dis- 
cov^ered I had made a mistake ; that under that grave ex- 
terior, and accompanying, harmoniously, the thoughtful- 
ness often descending to melancholy, which had formed it 
so, there was an abundance of that sort of tenderness which 
led him to love deeply, to pity cordially, and a humor 
which, in genuineness and richness, I have seldom seen 
equaled. 

The people of Hancock cordially received him ; and, being 
a member of the political party which had a majority in the 
county, (Whig,) he was sent to the Legislature at the next 
session after his removal. Though a Democrat myself, I had 
already formed so strong an attachment for him, and so ad- 
mired his genius, that I could but be pleased to see him 
thus have opportunities of making the reputation which I 
knew was in store for him. Even those Democrats who 
were most strictly party men were led to console them- 
selves in defeat, that the new leader of their opponents was 
a man of real genius, and a thoroughly honest gentleman. 

And now, this last word reminds me afresh what a gen- 
tlcinan was Linton Stephens ! Sure I am that in his whole 
life, whatever may have been the objects of his desire, he 
not only did never swerve from the straight line of honora- 
ble pursuit of them ; but, as I fully believe, he was never 
tempted to do so. 

In his practice at the bar, in his conduct of a political 
campaign, in his business dealings with his neighbors, he 
was entirely incapable of the employment of a trick, and 
would have scorned to have any object, however desirable, 
that he could not fairly win ; for he prized his own honor 
above all possible human possessions, even to the love of 
those who were the objects of his best love. It was this 
exalted sense of honor that made him sometimes so terri- 
ble in debate ; for the slightest deflection from honorable 
conduct, and even the suspicion of it, aroused his indignation. 

Such a man must exert great influence in his neighbor- 
hood. He had not been long a resident of Hancock before 
he became its leading citizen. His character, not at all less 
than his intellect, made him such. He was never a flatterer 
of the people — and, indeed, was not often among them. A. 
visit from him to other than his kinsmen was extremely 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1 79 

rare. He did not often go to his office, and when he did 
g-o, he usually staid but a short time, and then returned to 
his home ; but when he met the people, whether one or 
two of them, upon the streets, or in assembled crowds at 
the court-house, or the hustings, he so spoke and acted 
that they continually grew in their respect and their love 
for him. 

I said that he would often return home during office- 
hours. ^Of all men whom I have ever known, I think he 
was the most averse to leaving, home. The love of 
home, with him, far outweighed the desire for professional 
or political success. But for his conviction that such a course 
would have been an unjustifiable employment of his talents, 
I am confident that he would have retired from the law and 
from politics long before his death. Many a struggle has 
he had on mornings, when he was to start upon the circuit, 
between the reluctance to leave home and a sense of duty 
to go. It was only two weeks before his death, when I 
was at his house, and he had a short respite from the State 
prosecutions in Atlanta, that he spoke of his repugnance to 
going back to them, and of a desire, amounting to longing, 
to retire from all public life, and be always afterwards with 
his family. 

Yet, when he went to the courts, this home-feeling did 
not interfere with his attention to his cases, and at recesses, 
especially in the evenings at the hotels, when he had such 
company as he liked, he could fully enjoy social reunions, 
and there was no lawyer who was more quick to notice the 
funny things which used to occur in the circuit-ridings, or 
rehearse them better, or enjoy their rehearsal more keenly 
than he. Yet, while he would never dispatch business too 
hurriedly for the sake of getting home, when he did get 
there, no man could more fully have enjoyed the return. 

At home! It was here that Linton Stephens was at his 
best. The singleness of heart that made him so just and 
straightforward among men made him as honorable a hus- 
band as ever lived in this world, I do believe. He had 
married from pure love. He could not have married but 
from pure love. Otherwise, he' would have been most un- 
happy in marriage. The longer his married life continued, 
the more he loved the woman who had blessed it and the 
children she had borne to him. He was not only loving, 



l80 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

but he was attentive and tender — a continual companion in 
all seasons, and almost the best of nurses in the seasons of 
sickness. Five years after his marriage, his wife died. I 
never witnessed greater anguish than he suffered from this 
affliction. It continued through many years, and until he 
met the lady who became his second wife. You will have 
noticed in some of the letters which I have sent to you, 
written long after, how he dwelt upon this loss. 

Time, however, healed the wounds of this grief, and, 
having again most fortunately married, as before, he loved 
as he loved before, and was as happy with his noble second 
wife as he had been with the first. 

It was during the ten years of his widowerhood, from 
1857 t^ 1867, that our friend, as it seemed to me, exhibited 
the rarest qualities of head and heart. 

He was left with three little girls. There was no female 
relative who stood in such near relationship to him as would 
make it practicable for her to undertake their guidance dur- 
ing these years. His wife had been the only child of Judge 
Thomas, and her mother had died before her. Linton's 
only sister resided in a remote part of the State, and had a 
considerable family of her own. But in the household there 
were some faithful and well-trained servants. With these, 
therefore, he undertook to bring up these little girls. It 
would have touched the heart of any man, however little 
acquainted with him and his condition, to see how assidu- 
ously he labored to compensate these children for the 
loss which they had suffered — how he strove to be both 
father and mother to them, and how, when sometimes he 
would feel that he must, and did come short of this respon- 
sibility, he lapsed almost into despair. 

But here the tenderness which was one of his most strik- 
ing qualities came to his aid, and was sufficient for his and 
their needs. He took upon himself the care and education 
of these children, and those of us who knew him best 
saw with pleasure how he adapted himself to this delicate 
and most difficult task. To me, he seemed to have suc- 
ceeded in making himself again a child — so fully did his 
heart learn to accord with theirs in the love and apprecia- 
tion of things which are intended and generally seem to be 
fitted only for childhood. 

Patiently he taught them the principles of learning, and 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. l8l 

his old love of childish literature came again to him, as, 
with his little ones around him, he read the old stories, and 
his and their tears flowed together. I have often gone to 
his house and found him with his little charge. But he 
usually dismissed them, after I entered, to their nurse, and 
though most generally we went to the consideration of other 
things, yet, he would sometimes linger upon a subject that 
their last lessons had suggested, and fondly tell of some of 
their sayings and doings. There was one story, in particu- 
lar, of the old days, which he and I often referred to, and 
pleasingly remembered how, when very young children, we 
had wept over it. The book containing it had long been 
out of print, but I found it once at an administrator's sale 
and bought it. I told him of it, and mentioned that I 
had not read it again, and had hesitated to do so in the 
fear that I might not feel the old emotion. He asked me 
to send it to him. I did so ; and not long afterwards, he 
said to me: "Dick, you need not be afraid that you won't 
cry from reading Little Jack. I have read it to the child- 
ren. They cried as if their hearts would break, and I cried 
about as much as they did." 

It was this tenderness in his nature which, more than 
anything else, enabled him to bring on these little girls in 
the sort of education which it was best for them to have. 
Not only his natural love, but his sympathy -for them, his 
commiseration even for their very unconsciousness of the 
loss they had suffered, made him the more easily become 
sometimes like them in tastes, feelings and emotions. It 
would have put to shame most fathers, and those with 
greatly less capacity than his for the enjoyment and pursuit 
of greater things, to notice how thoroughly he had learned 
these children's various characters, and how he delighted 
in employing the means of giving them suitable develop- 
ment. 

Sometime during the war, Mr. Cosby Connel, an unmar- 
ried gentleman, about ten years his senior, an intelligent 
man of ordii^ry education, and of great probity of charac- 
ter, went to live with him, and so continued until his death 
in the year 1868. 

A very ardent personal friendship grew up between these 
two men. Mr. Connel was a man of decided likings, and, 
being of domestic habits, rendered invaluable aid in the 



1 82 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

management of household affairs. The children became 
strongly attached to him, and he to them. He watched 
over them with the care and affection of a father, and Lin- 
ton was greatly relieved of his anxiety, in his absence, when 
he knew they were under the charge of Mr. Connel. 

And now, what shall I say about what it was to visit at 
that house in those times ? The absence of women did 
away with much ceremonious entrance: The door was ever 
open, and his friends seldom paused to knock. Advancing 
through the spacious hall, they entered into his library, 
where he literally lived. He might be reading to his child- 
ren, or reading for his own entertainment, or writing, or 
playing at solitaire, or simply musing while he smoked his 
cigar. The open box was on the mantel, and the visitor 
would light up and read a newspaper, picking up one of a 
dozen from the floor, or take a hand at cards, or sit and 
smoke, and wait for talk to begin. Cosby Connel would 
just have been in, or would soon come in from the garden, 
in which he took great pride, and we might begin on him 
until Linton would turn from his table and join in. We 
might talk of politics, or a law case, or of Cosby's peas, 
and cabbage, and potatoes. The presence of friends would 
unbend him from his studies, and make him seem to forget 
his grief and solitude. I never expect to enjoy again such 
raciness of talk as we used to have in that library when we 
would all get warmed well in contact. His humor was only 
the more genuine and flowing from the melancholy, which, 
natural to him, had been mellowed by affliction. There 
was many a character, both in Hancock and the adjoining 
counties, whose oddities- he and I well knew, and the re- 
hearsal of their doings and sayings would be followed by 
shouts of laughter that it would be glorious to hear and to ut- 
ter. But later in the day, I may have lingered longer than 
the rest. After dinner, Cosby might be out at his work, or 
taking his evening nap on the sofa. As the day would 
wane, we would lapse into serious conversation, which 
might lead to his own condition, the prospect* of his child- 
ren and his own ; on these he would converse with me as 
freely, I believe, as he did with his own heart. When, at 
last, the day would end, and I must go, we would shake 
hands without other words than "good-bye;" yet, he would 
know, and I am sure it comforted him in some degree to 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1 83 

know, that I loved and sympathized with him more and 
more from every additional interview. 

Alluding to the merry times we sometimes had, I am re- 
minded that I have observed that his appreciation of hu- 
morous things was not as generally known as it was by those 
who were his intimate friends. Added to an uncommonly 
serious exterior, he had, beyond any one I have ever known, 
the faculty of postponing the enjoyment of a ridiculous oc- 
currence, if a postponement was proper or desirable. He 
could witness, without a change in his face, the funniest 
things, and then store them away, even the smallest bits of 
them, and afterwards, when a fit opportunity occurred, bring 
them forth, and they would have lost none of their fresh- 
ness. I well remember his first visit to me after I had re- 
moved to Athens, and when he came there as Judge of the 
Supreme Court. One afternoon, we had taken a long 
walk into the country, and were returning down the hill 
near Governor Lumpkin's. He had been telling me some 
good things about several of our old acquaintances, and we 
had gotten into a vein of uncontrollable laughter. He then 
to^d me several' anecdotes of Gabe Nash, Esq.; one, espe- 
cially, about the municipal ordinances of the new town of 
Hartwell, under one of which Gabe was fined a dollar for 
loud talking in the streets. We were both so convulsed 
by this that we became uproarious in our bursts of laughter, 
and had to lean upon each other to keep from falling. 
We had not noticed a carriage that was coming up the hill. 
It contained some of my lady acquaintances. We bowed 
in some confusion as they passed, and they afterwards said 
to me that they' had made the driver linger a while at 
the foot of the hill in the apprehension that a couple of es- 
caped lunatics were in their way. 

We* were both extremely fond of his father-in-law, the 
late Judge James Thomas. The Judge, a capital lawyer, 
and otherwise an excellent man, had many eccentricities. 
These manifested themselves most frequently in his seasons 
of sickness, and unfortunately the latter occurred very often. 
Whenever one of these came on, Linton would go to his 
house and remain with him until he was well again. I have 
already said that the latter was one of the best of nurses, 
and the Judge, having lost his wife, and having no female 
relative in theliouse, needed the nursing that Linton knew 



1 84 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

how to besto\y. Another reason for this necessity was, 
that the Judge had the greatest confidence in his own medi- 
cal skill, and none whatever in that of any physician. It 
was only Linton who could restrain him from employing 
whatever remedies his whimsy might suggest — remedies 
which often were the most unsuitable possible for his condi- 
tion. It was always an extremely difficult matter to control 
him in such cases. Only Linton, with his coolness and firm- 
ness, could hold him in check. The old gentleman doted on 
his son-in-law, and always his most potent reason with him 
in yielding his point would be the apprehension that he 
might not be sufficiently considerate of Linton's feelings 
if he should persist in his course. Still, he would argue 
every point, and sometimes Linton would be driven to put 
his hand upon the potion that he had resolved to take, and 
gently withdraw it from his grasp. At such times, there 
had to be a compromise of some sort, for nothing could get 
him to take the prescription of the physician. The highest 
compliment he had ever been known to pay to any physician 
was when he said of Dr. Edward Alfriend, his family physi- 
cian and very dear friend, that Jie really did believe that 
Alfriend killed fewer patients than any doctor he knew. 

After such a sojourn with the Judge at Lancaster (his 
country-seat), Linton would return home. When we could 
get a fair opportunity for such a purpose, and had gotten fully 
rested from his long watching, he would take out of his 
pocket, as it were, scores of the funniest things imagin- 
able that had occurred at Lancaster, tell them over to me, 
and, for the first time, would laugh and laugh until the tears 
would run out of his eyes. 

I have spoken thus freely of his humor, because I am 
sure the public generally were not aware how abundant and 
hearty it was. While his elegant culture enabled kim to 
see at a glance and to fully appreciate the most delicate 
playfulness of the best literary humorists, yet his simplicity, 
and broadness of understanding and heart, allowed him to 
take in all humorous things, from the most sparkling sallies 
of genius to the droll gambols of even the lower animals. 
When we would be going on the circuit together, in a buggy, 
while much of our conversation would be on serious sub- 
jects, and very often upon our own, and especially his 
domestic afflictions, yet he would often be diverted to 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1 8$ 

making charades and conundrums, and other sportive 
suggestions. Occasionally, these speculations would im- 
perceptibly lapse into a vein of sentiment, and even of 
melancholy, that would be most delicate and most touching. 
The shadow that his great affliction had cast upon him was 
ever there, but the humor that was a part of his nature 
must assert itself sometimes, and I am sure it became the 
richer from the pathos which went along with it. To one 
who shed so many tears in secret, a laugh was sometimes 
as refreshing as food to the hungry, and he enjoyed it the 
more because it seldom came, and came irresistibly. 

The intercourse that he had with his clients was interest- 
ing. No lawyer was ever more free from the habit of either 
encouraging litigation, or flattering clients by giving too 
favorable opinions. Thoroughly sincere in all things, he 
counselled exactly as he thought. Whenever an attempt 
was made to arbitrate, he was one of the few, who could see 
and feel the strong points in the adversary's right, equally 
with those of his client, no matter how long he had been con- 
nected with his case. He was almost a perfect lawyer, 
and the thorough control he exerted over his intellect made 
such a task easy. It was thus he could win suits without 
appealing to the prejudices of juries, or too hastily assailing 
his adversary, preferring and feeling safe to rely upon the 
strength of his case and his power to establish it. Aside 
from the eloquence that comes from an ardent and vigorous 
understanding that had received great culture, there was a 
perspicuity in his spoken language, and a facility of sim- 
plifying contested questions, that I never saw surpassed at 
the bar. 

Counting the work that he did, he ought to have amassed 
a fortune by his practice. But his charges were almost uni- 
formly below the average of the profession, and often, very 
often, he would lower the fee after the termination of a great 
case, and lower it again and again, upon the representation 
(not always sincere) of his client that he could not afford to 
pay it. This was particularly the case in his own county. 
The poor had their little cases attended to with as little cost 
as the poor anywhere, certainly, and, by his prudent coun- 
sels, he kept out of the courts a greater number of litigants 
than he ever carried there. There is no calculating the 
blessing that such a lawyer is to a community. 



I 86 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

After the war, when almost every man became reduced 
to poverty, he did an immense amount of such work — not 
excepting the destitute negroes from his charitable counsels 
and aid. He was constantly making their little settlements, 
and adjusting their disputes, and counselling them generally, 
and without reward. 

Such devotion had its legitimate results. Of course, 
there was some ingratitude in his experience, as in that 
of every generous man. But he was as much beloved 
in that county as any public man could be anywhere, and 
when he died, all, as well the poor as tljose who had been 
able to recover from pecuniary disasters, as well the black 
man as the white, mourned as if they had lost their best 
friend. The little village of colored people, built in the 
suburbs of Sparta since the war, was draped with crape. 

As his children grew older, his friends hoped he might 
again marry, they being all girls. I do not doubt that his 
grief for the loss of his wife was the deeper and the harder 
to be subdued, as he contemplated daily the increasing loss 
which her death had brought to them. But it was not 
until 1865 that the idea of a second marriage was per- 
mitted to enter his mind. It was in the fall of this year, 
while on a visit to his brother, then a prisoner at Fort War- 
ren, that he became acquainted with Miss Mary W. Salter, 
of Boston. This acquaintance ripened into most, devoted 
affection, and led to his second marriage, which took place 
in 1867. This marriage was most happy in its results. In 
this new sharer of his after fortunes, he and his children 
found every quality becoming the character of wife and 
mother. Never was man, so sorely afflicted for years, more 
eminently blessed in the end. Three other children were 
born ; and I have never known a house in which it would 
have been more difficult to notice in all, parents and child- 
ren, that there was any difference in their relative positions 
among one another. Even now, since the father has been 
removed from them, the only alteration that death has 
seemed to cause has been to bind that blended circle the 
closer together in reciprocal duties and affections. 

I scarcely know how even to begin to speak of Linton 
as a friend. He was so unspeakably dear to me, that I feel 
like saying more than would perhaps be becoming in such 
a letter. While he was so generally beloved in his 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. I87 

neighborhood, he was on strictly and entirely confidential 
terms of friendship with a limited number. Without much 
constraint in his associations with his neighbors, his deepest 
and most secret thoughts and feelings were imparted to 
very few; and to them, they were imparted without the 
slightest reserve. The tenderness of which I have before 
spoken gushed out, abundant and free, to the friends he 
loved. For his friendship was pure love. He had grown 
to be warmly attached to Mr. Cosby Connel. In the sum- 
mer of 1868, he and Mrs. Stephens went on a visit to her 
parents in Boston, and left this gentleman and the older 
children behind. During their absence, Mr. Connel died. 
I regret much that I have mislaid the letter Linton wrote 
me from Boston when he heard by telegraph of this event. 
But he wept and wept ! I saw from the letter, what I knew 
before I received and read it, that his very soul was pour- 
ing itself out in sorrow for the friend of his love. 

I know you will be touched when you read the letters he 
wrote to me about the sickness and death of his servant 
woman, Mary, the wife of Travis, his coachman ; for tJicrc 
was another friend, though a slave. That great, loving 
heart recognized its dues to the lowly as well as the high, 
and paid them all fully out of its allowance. I have fre- 
quently remarked that, though he was ever kind and con- 
siderate to negroes generally, yet he seemed to have a feel- 
ing akin to friendship for all belonging to his special friends. 
My old house-servants liked him very much for his friendly 
notice, and he and they usually shook hands on meeting 
and parting at my house. 

It was always beautiful to me to observe the relations be- 
tween him and his brother, Alexander. I suspect that no 
two brothers ever stood in the relation to each other of 
greater love and sympathy. While they were never part- 
ners in the law, yet they would never appear in court on 
opposing sides. Their love was such that each, I believe, 
could not endure the thought of attempting, or even wish- 
ing for things different or adverse among themselves. It 
was for sometime unfavorable to the growth of Linton's 
reputation, that the general public delayed to give him full 
credit for independence in his political opinions. The truth 
is, that their thorough intimacy and their mutual fondness 
had induced a similarity of thinking upon most subjects ; 



1 88 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

and though living in different counties, they often, and in- 
deed generally, would form instantaneously the same judg- 
ments upon questions that had newly arisen, and upon 
which they had not had time to confer. I have noticed, 
sometimes, the pleasure each has felt in such a case. 

The brothers sympathized always and entirely. The joy 
and the grief of one were the joy and the grief of the other. 
This was most especially the case with the elder brother. 
To Linton he had been both brother and father. He had 
educated him with almost unequaled care, and, I am sure, 
that his greatest happiness, aside from the consciousness of 
performing his own duties, consisted in seeing Linton 
successful and happy. Their love for each other was per- 
fect in its kind. The death of Linton would have broken 
the heart of the survivor, but for his religious faith, and his 
sense of obligation to hold out to the last in the work which 
he had yet to do. 

In conclusion, I say to you frankly, that I feel like say- 
ing something more, if I could find what was becoming to 
say, about Linton as my friend. But I fear I have already 
alluded too often to myself in this letter. But I knew him 
best, when he and I were together, alone. We had been 
friends from the first to the last. In those twenty years, 
through what varied scenes we passed together ! We have 
rejoiced together, and we have mourned together. He had 
domestic afflictions — so had I. In those twenty years, he 
and I several times were in alternate relations of waller and 
consoler. Deeply and long as he could bewail his own griefs, 
so tenderly and considerately could he be a consoler of 
mine. I have never known a man who understood, as well 
as he, the blessed art of searching into the breast of a sor- 
rowing friend, and applying healing balm unto its sorest 
wounds. In all of his moods, whether sad or gay, he was 
ever the same to me, trusted and loved ; and, I do not hesi- 
tate to say, trusting and loving. When I heard that he 
was no more, few things that might have happened could 
have impressed me more deeply with thoughts of what 
havoc death can make with the happiness which comes from 
indulgence in human affections. 

Very truly, your friend, 

R. M. Johnston. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1 89 

I insert here a few additional letters, without regard to 
chronological order, which avouch the accuracy of Profes- 
sor Johnston's judgment of the beauty and tenderness of 
his domestic and social virtues. 

From the White Sulphur Springs, Virginia, whither he 
repaired for health, in 1868, he wrote this letter to his three 
eldest daughters — Rebecca, Claude and Emm : 

White Sulphur Springs, September i, 1868. 

My Precious Darlings — The main purpose which your 
poor, old, gruffy, morose, petulant, melancholy Papa has 
in writing to you at this late day is to apologize for not hav- 
ing written to you sooner. The penalty of duty neglected 
is always, in the end, humiliation in some way or other; and 
the offender gets off very lightly when the humiliation comes 
in no worse form than confession — especially, when the con- 
fession has the reactionary effect of procuring pardon or ab- 
solution, and thus setting him on his legs again with a re- 
lieved conscience and undaunted brow. I have made the 
confession ; it depends upon you to grant the absolution. 
Will you do it at once, and thus set poor Papa up all right 
again, or will you prolong his punishment by withholding 
your forgiveness? If the latter, I shall not complain, for I 
richly deserve it ; but if the former, I shall be very happy 
in having one more proof that you are the sweetest and 
best children in the world. To forgive neglect of ourselves, 
on the part of others, is one of the very highest exercises 
of unselfish love, and therefore one of the highest and 
brightest elements of excellence, since there is nothing 
which exceeds neglect in its tendency to wound our self- 
love. To subordinate self-love to our love for another is 
as beautiful as it is difficult and heroic. If, therefore, you 
shall exhibit the beauty of heroism, I shall have the felicity 
of forgiveness. I shall cease to regret my sin, because it 
will be taken away from me and converted into the exalta- 
tion and glory of my children. Can my sweet darlings now 
refuse to forgive poor old Papa? No. I am sure they will 
eagerly contest the point among themselves, which of them 
will be the first to spring into his arms and tell him he is 
forgiven. Do you know, by the way, that the enormity of 



190 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

my delinquencies obliges me sometimes to incur the humil- 
iation of apologizing to so small a personage as Baby?* 
Just think of it! a grave, gray-headed man like me, asking 
pardon of a little frowning monkey like her; and yet, my 
petulant humors or irreverent speeches are sometimes 
resented by her little ladyship in a way which brings the 
repentant old father right down on his knees. But bless 
her bright, sweet, loving little soul ! she never fails to for- 
give her "Papy" whenever he asks her forgiveness in the 
proper handsome manner. I am indeed blessed in my 
children — in all my children, from the greatest even unto 
the least You will understand, however, that in estimat- 
ing which is greatest and which is least, I shall be guided, 
not by the size and beauty of their bodies, but by the size 
and beauty of their souls. Do you want to know ivJiich of 
your four souls Papa regards as the biggest and most beau- 
tiful? Ah! well, that is Papa's .^^r/r/. He defies any and 
all of you to find it out. You need not try to worm it out 
of Mama, for I do not intend to let her any deeper into it 
than the rest of you. I give all of you, including her, full 
leave to form an alliance against me, and to use all your 
art. I shall not be cajoled or surprised into a revelation. 
I will, however, give you a clue to guide your guesses from 
time to time. I say from time to time, because the size 
and beauty of the soul are things of gnnvth, and the soul 
that excels at one time is often overtaken and surpassed by 
the more rapid growth of an inferior one. Yes, my dar- 
lings, the soul is even more capable of growth than the 
body is ; for, unlike the body, it has no lijuitation upon its 
growth, neither in time nor eternity. It may forever and 
forever expand in capacity and beauty — finding forever a 
new happiness in its very sense of expansion. Is not this 
a very sweet and encouraging thought? To know our ca- 
pacities of happiness is the opening of the gate which 
leads to its attainment. The sight of the splendid prize, as 
a possession which can be made our own, is a most powerful 
incentive to struggle for its appropriation. This sight comes 
to the soul by the eye of faith, founded on reason, just as 
images of beauty in the material world sink sweetly and 
lovingly into the chambers of the material eye, if it will 



* Little Nora, then not nauch over a year old. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. I9I 

only open its doors and let in the light., But I said I would 
give you a chie. Well, here it is : I shall be very apt to 
think that soul the biggest and most beautiful which is the 
biggest and most beautiful ; and you will, therefore, be most 
likely to get at my secret opinion by forming for yourselves 
the most candid judgment of your own comparative charac- 
ters. Aha! you think now I have betrayed my secret. 
Not a bit — I liope ■ and believe all of you will exhibit such 
an equal growth — each resolved not to be surpassed by any 
other — that the difference shall ever remain a contested 
point and a doubtful matter. Do you suppose, from what 
I have said, that I would have you to look upon one and 
another as rivals? No, not rivals — not even in greatness 
and beauty of soul — for rivalry implies a certain sort of 
selfishness, even when the contest is pursued for the noblest 
prizes ; while real greatness and beauty of soul consist in 
nothing more certainly and luminously than in the negation 
of self and devotion to others — preferring one another in 
honor, even in the Jwnor of goodness. Lest all this may 
seem incomprehensible to your young minds, as it equally 
seems to many, very many older ones, I will express it in a 
different form, which I think is clearer, and, at the same 
time, more accurate. I begin by saying that my idea must 
not be understood as excluding all selfishness from the pale 
of greatness and beauty ; on the contrary, there is one sort 
of selfishness which forms the necessary basis of rational 
character, whether rational or insane — everything does and 
viust act with a view to his oivii happiness. Do you sug- 
gest that very few people seem to act from that motive — 
that many seem to be pursuing their own misery instead 
of happiness ? Well, this is only a seeming — not a reality. 
It is too true that very few persons pursue their happiness 
in a wise ivay, or with wisdom equal to their knowledge ; 
but it is still equally true that every person is always im- 
pelled by some view of his own happiness as a motive- 
power. It is often a most mistaken view — so obviously mis- 
taken that it would be readily corrected by his own stock 
of knowledge, if his knowledge were only realized and ap- 
plied to the case. The difficulty is, that knowledge is not 
realized, and not applied in the case. It is not realized, be- 
cause there is not the necessary reflection to bring home, as 
a present reality, its logical conclusions which lie in the fu- 



192 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

ture. There is nothing so difficult for human nature as to 
preserve a just relative estimate of the present and the fu- 
ture, the short, evanescent, but ever-presiding present, 
and the future which has not yet come in contact with the 
soul. The future, although it may be known in the sense 
of being open to reflection, if reflection could only be made 
to bear upon it, and accept it as an inevitable experience, loses 
its just weight in the balance. The present always asserts 
itself, and never allows itself to be overlooked or depreci- 
ated. The poor, unreflecting human soul often indulges in 
a small present gratification, from which it would shrink ap- 
palled if it would but realize and appreciate, as a present ex- 
perience, the miserable consequences which lie in the yet 
unreached future ; but still, in the very act of present in- 
dulgence, the soul is moved by that view of its own hap- 
piness which is then predominant. The present reigns tri- 
umphant because the future is sliiit out. Thus you see how 
it is, as I have said, that a certain sort of selfishness forms 
the necessary basis of every character, and is the spring of 
all human action. But there is an immeasurable difference 
between ttvo kituis of selfishness, and in this difference lies 
the secret of greatness and beauty of soul. One kind of 
selfishness is solitary — the other is social. One finds its 
happiness or gratification in the indulgence of its every 
passion and desire, without regard to the happiness or mis- 
ery of others, and even sometimes in the misery of others. 
The other kind finds its pleasure in seeing, and still more 
in creating, the happiness of others. This kind cannot have 
a real happiness unless it is shared by loved ones. Neither 
of these two kinds exists in its perfection in any one person ; 
but the two kinds are mixed in every person, yet in very 
different degrees in different persons. The solitary kind is 
despicable ; the social kind is noble, and beautiful, and lovely. 
Greatness and beauty of soul are best cultivated by culti- 
vating that noble selfishness which finds its happiness in 
the happiness of others. All of this, which I have taken 
so much space to explain, is embodied in the command to 
love God with your whole heart, and your neighbor as 
yourself. The selfishness which I call the noble kind is but 
another exposition for the law of love. It is the fountain 
of the purest, sweetest, and most abundant happiness. But 
I must hurry to a close. I am, perhaps, a little better in 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1 93 

health than when I came here. In a few days, your uncle 
EUic and I expect to go to another spring about sixteen 
miles from this one. It is called the Sweet Chalybeate 
spring. Send your next letter to Boston. I have received 
three letters from Claude, two from Rebecca, and one from 
Emm. Emm's letter I got this evening. It bears date of 
the 25th of August. I think you have all improved very 
much in letter-writing. I think Claude has improved 
the most, and I expect it is because she has written the 
most letters, and taken the most pains to write them. Your 
uncle was quite sick day before yesterday. He seemed 
quite well again yesterday, but to-day again he is quite 
unwell. His affliction is of the nature of cholera-morbus. 
He thinks it was produced by some frozen custard which 
he ate for dinner the day before his attack, but I suspect it 
came from the water here. Before that attack, he had 
greatly improved in strength and health. I think now, my 
darlings, that we shall not get back home before the middle 
of October. I don't want you to go to school while the 
sun is very hot. Take care of your healtJi by all means. 
We may get home sooner than the time I have mentioned, 
but you needn't expect us sooner. I don't know how long 
I may stay at the other spring — as long as I may get benefit 
from it. And now, good-bye, my darlings, and may God 
bless you. 

Your loving Father. 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, August 19, 1869. 

Dear Brother — I got your letter of 

yesterday, and the Constitutionalist containing your reply to 
Greeley. I think this reply is one of the very best things 
you ever wrote. Indeed, I think it the best. It is vigor- 
ous, luminous and crushing. I have sent the paper to Ben 
Harris, at his request. He promised to take care of it and 
return it. I was down town a while this morning, and spoke 
of the piece in a way which caused him to ask for the paper. 
While I write, Claude has Baby on the sofa, showing her 
the pictures in a large illustrated Bible. She has the pas- 
sion for pictures stronger than I ever saw it in a child 01 
her age. She has a "Mother Goose" which she pretty 
18* 



\ 

194 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

generally carries around with her, annoying people to death 
with begging to have the pictures explained. She decidedly 
prefers me as expositor, because I render them to her in 
dramatic style. You can't imagine how intense an atten- 
tion she gives to these representatives, nor what a Babel of 
gibberish she sometimes delivers in response to them. She 
remembers, too, a great deal of what I tell her about the 
pictures, and universally selects for comment those which 
have before been most highly dramatized. 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, February 5, i860. 

Dear Brother — I am now about to do what I have no 
recollection of ever having done before — re-ivrite a letter to 
yoii; or, to express the truth more nearly, I am about to 
write you a new letter, because I have become dissatisfied 
with the one on hand, and have discovered it. I was about 
to say, discovered it midway, but I don't know whether it 
was midway, or one-tenth, or one-twentietli of the way to 
its end, for one of the main reasons I had for dropping it 
was, that I could see no symptoms of its coming to an end 
at all. I was like a novice trying to dispatch an oyster, and 
feeling the thing grow bigger and bigger in his mouth in- 
stead of becoming prepared for the passage down his gullet. 
So I have just taken the unmanageable morsel out of my 
mouth, and laid it gently down, in the spirit of Martin 
Crawford's man, who took the hot pudding out of his mouth 
at the grand dinner and laid it down with the complacent, 
self-gratulatory remark, "A damned fool would have swal- 
lowed it." I tell you I had got the thing into a terrible 
"tangle, and I am very much disposed to compliment my 
own ingenuity in getting rid of it. There are not many 
men who would have done it. Now I am ready to go 

on Yesterday, I got your letter of 

the day before, written at home, saying that you expected 
to go back to Augusta yesterday evening, and telling me 
also what an escape you had from being burnt out. 

There was one thing in your account of the burning that 

made me laugh, though I have not the slightest idea that 

. you meant or expected it to have that effect. It was the 

grand moral you drew from the affair : " I do abominate this 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. I95 

way of carrying pipes about." Now, that a fellow, after 
giving an account of his being so near a burning from a 
careless pipe, should wind it up with a grand flourish that 
he abominated this way of carrying pipes about, struck me 
as being superfluous in an irresistibly ludicrous degree. It 
communicated to me just about the same amount of inform- 
ation as Walter Shandy got from his brother Toby's re- 
mark when Toby informed Corporal Trim, in the hearing 
of Walter, that he believed the auxiliaries with which he 
and Trim were acquainted, and those auxiliaries about which 
his "brother Shandy" had been speaking, were different 
things; and if I had been by you when you said it, I 
should certainly havegiven you "brother Shandy's" iden- 
tical reply — "You do?" That passage in "Tristram" is 
not exceeded in humor by anything that I ever heard or 
read, and the whole humor of it lies in Shandy's state of 
mind, produced by the extreme superfluity of Toby's re- 
mark. I insist, therefore, that if you had had Shandy for 
an auditor whei'[ you said you "did abominate this way of 
carrying pipes about," it would have been as funny a scene 
as the one just referred to between the Shandy brothers. 
Did you ever try to analyze the fun of that passage? It is 
worth the trouble. Toby's palpable and patient superfluity 
is a funny thing in itself, in the first place ; and so is yours. 
In the next place, his mode of expression implies, that how- 
ever the idea might have been in his mind before that time, 
in a vague, chaotic form, it had come to development but 
very lately before it was formally announced ; and so does 
yours. So far, the parallel is complete — not one whit against 
you. But the cream of the joke in Toby's instance could 
not be matched \\\ yours, unless you had had Shandy for an 
auditor, for it consists in the very peculiar state of mind 
induced in him. Toby had just said a most ludicrous thing ; 
but the moral is, that it did not strike his brother in a lu- 
dicrous light. His reply, "You do!" is exceedingly sug- 
gestive of a state of mind which he had rapidly passed 
through, as well as the one at which he had then arrived. 
The first feeling excited in his mind evidently had been 
contempt for Toby's slowness in coming so late to an idea 
which Shandy certainly believed had been in his own mind 
ever since he was born, and this first feeling had been 
quickly tempered by pity, which instantly cast a glance 



196 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

into the future, and saw no hope of mneiuhncnt for Toby 
there; then it was that despair entered into his mind and 
he softly said, "You do?" 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, February 27, i860. 

Dear Brother — This is another memorable anniversary 
with me. To-day, eight years ago, I was married. That 
was a brilliant day and brilliant night — the most brilliant, I 
have often thought, that I ever saw ; and it seems to me 
that its annual returns are apt to be of like character. Such 
is to-day. T will not write about the.thoughts which crowd 
upon me with a peculiar force at this time, for they would 
only sadden you to read them, and their expression can do 
me no good But it occurs to me at this mo- 
ment that I will write you a piece of news. We have got 
a vigilance committee here. Yesterday they tried a fellow 
for uttering abolition sentiments. The culprit was a native 
of this county, by the name of Pool. He is a young man, 
26 or 28 years old, the son of old Pool, the sJiinglc-gcttcr. 
He is a poor, ignorant fellow, whose lot in life has rendered 
virtue almost an impossibility, and his vices almost a neces- 
sity. The proof against him — as I heard the witness, Long, 
Mr. Thomas' overseer, detail it to me and two or three 
others yesterday in an outside, informal way — was this: 
Long met Pool one day going home from Sparta, and asked 
him the news in town. Pool replied that he heard Mr. 
Edwards read a piece from a newspaper that day about the 
abolitionists forming a band to go and turn old John Brown 
out of jail, and he had heard that the "Hancock Vol- 
unteers " were going to Milledgeville and get arms and "go 
on" to help prevent it. He then went on to say that he 
thought we were going to have a war, and that he thought 
that Brown's side would be the strong side, because there 
were so many more negroes than there were white folks, 
and that when the "war" came, he was going to take care 
of himself by joining the strong side. He added that he 
wished "there weren't no niggers, nohow," for then he 
could get more for his work. Long asked him how he 
could get to Brown's men when he should undertake to 
join them. He said he would black himself and go to thetn 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. I97 

where they were. "Mark you this, sir: he would black 
himself.'' This was the proof. Poor Pool denied every bit 
of it, most bitterly, and swore he was as good a friend to 
the South as any man who owned a hundred niggers. His 
denial was as emphatic as old Peter's was, and made, no 
doubt, for the same reason — to save himself from being 
hung. Jack Smith, who is one of the " Vigilants," came 
to me, where I was sitting in the street on a goods box, 
taking the sun, and talking to Cosby and two or three 
others, and asked my advice about what was the best to be 
done with Pool. Whereupon, I gave him my advice, with 
such a prelude as I hoped might secure its adoption. I 
told him, for my part, I was not in favor of Lynch-law, but 
I couldn't help feeling glad whenever I heard of a strag- 
gling abolitionist being sent back on his own side of the line 
with our mark on him; that I was perfectly willing to see 
the rascals fed out of their own spoon by rendering the 
slavery question a practical test to them as they were 
rendering it to us; and hence, whenever I heard of a 
strolling Yankee of this class sent back home with a 
little token to keep us fresh in his memory, and the 
memory of his friends, I felt that a good work was going 
on ; but that there could be no good accomplished by 
harshness towards a poor, simple native like Pool. There 
was nobody to be annoyed or corrected by it, except a few 
other simple people of his own class, whose sympathies 
would only be increased by a martyr in their own class, 
however their tongues might be stilled by the terror of the 
example ; that such fellows as he were to be watched and 
taken care of when a conflict might be thrust upon us by 
a far different class of men ; but that he never could pro- 
d7icc the conflict, nor start the first ripple towards the first 
move ; that he certainly was not a dangerous man, what- 
ever his wishes might be ; for there wasn't a negro in the 
county with so little sense as to be fooled into trouble by 
such a fellow as Pool. The conclusion to which I came 
from all this was, that it would have been best, perhaps, to 
have said nothing about it in the first instance ; but as they 
had noticed it officially, the best thing now was to lecture 
him, and turn him loose on good behavior. Jack went off 
to rejoin his associates with an evident intent, as I thought, 
to advocate the course I had advised. John B , who had 



198 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

been standing in ear-shot, came up as soon as Jack had left, 
and in a tone of remonstrance against the advice I had 
given, said : ' ' Well, I tell you what it is, when they get so 
far along as to talk about blacking themselves, sir, I'll tell you, 
sir, something ought to be done with them." I laughed 
and Cosby laughed. The result of Pool's case was that 
he was lectured and turned loose. I believe the lecturing 
was done by Jack Smith. Cosby was not pleased with my 
views about strolling Yankees. He is an extreme conser- 
vative, and undertook to argue the question with me. He 
said my position — that I myself would not administer 
Lynch-law — was an acknowledgment that Lynch-law was 
wrong. I told him, in the first place, I had only said I was 
not in favor of Lynch-law — that is, that I was not its advocate ; 
but while I was not prepared to say that I would myself 
administer it in any case whatever, I was equally unpre- 
pared to say that I would not administer it in any conceiv- 
able case ; on the contrary, I was inclined to think there 
might be cases in which it would be rig^ht, and in which I 
would myself administer it; but that my rejoicing to hear 
of its administration, in a temperate style upon strolling 
Yankees sometimes, was independent of the question of 
whether it was right or wrong in the person who adminis- 
ters it ; that my rejoicing might be right while their act 
might be wrong. He said he couldn't understand that 
morality; and as you may have a similar difficulty, allow 
me to lengthen out this letter, already too long, to justify 
my position. You may find me wandering into some curi- 
ous abstractions, but you must be patient. I prefer that 
you should read them and set them right if they should be 
wrong, rather than throw them aside because they are 
wrong. Did you ever read Bulwer's ' ' Eugene Aram ? " If 
so, you of course remember the splendid sophistry by which 
Aram satisfied himself that he might justifiably kill the old 
miser in order to get his money and make a good use of it. 
It is, as I have called it, truly a sophistry, but it contained 
much truth, and is logically separated from the conclusion 
at which it arrives, only by a single fallacy, at the very last 
link of the chain. I speak from memory, unrefreshed within 
twenty years or more ; but I think every link in the chain 
is a good one, except the last. According to all human 
apprehension, it would have been a good thing for the money 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 1 99 

to get out of the hands of the miser, where it did no good 
to himself nor anybody else, into the hands of the benefi- 
cent Aram, whose large charity was withheld from its mis- 
sion of blessings, and his genius restrained from its career 
of usefulness, only by penury. It would have been a good 
thing for him to get the money, but it was not right for 
him, as he concluded it was, to kill the old miser and take 
it. If the old fellow had died in the course of nature, and 
left his money to Aram, everybody would have said that a 
good thing had happened, and everybody would have been 
glad to Jiear tliat the old man ivas dead, if it had been known 
beforehand that he had a will in Aram's favor — glad to 
hear that he ivas dead, but glad not beeause he was dead, but 
because Aram would get the money. So, if the old fellow, 
with such a will on hand, had been killed by some great 
scoundrel who had missed being hung long before, from 
want of evidence, and not want of dues, the people would 
have still rejoiced to hear that he was dead, (however, a 
thrill of horror might have passed over them,) not beeause 
he was dead, but still because Aram would get the money, 
and a great scoundrel, besides, would get his long-delayed 
deserts. They would all have said the great scoundrel had 
done a great crime, and they would have hung hinT for it, 
and there would have been regrets and pity for the poor 
murdered old man ; but the whole drama, when played out, 
would have caused more pity than sorrow, and anybody 
who coidd have foreseen the end would have felt the joy as 
soon as the curtain was raised. A good man would have 
given his voice for hanging the murderer who opened the 
drama, and yet would have rejoiced that it was opened be- 
cause of the results which he could foresee would necessa- 
rily come as a consequence of the opening. Now, you may 
begin to perceive why I may rejoice when I hear of a 
strolling Yankee being sent across Mason and Dixon's 
Line in a coat of tar and feathers. I rejoice, not in the 
poor fellow's pain, whether he be guilty or innocent, but 
because I foresee that his treatment will either bring his 
deluded friends to a sense of justice, by showing them that 
justice to us and their own interests are one and the same 
thing, or will madden them into the disruption of a gov- 
ernment which has become an instrument of our annoy- 
ance and torture, instead of our security and protection. I 



200 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

might even condemn the men who play such fantastic 
tricks, and yet be glad the tricks are played. I might not 
be willing to do the deed myself, because I might feel that 
it was wrong, and yet be glad that it was done, because I 
foresee that its fruit will be good. The philosophy of the 
idea is about this: there is in the world plenty of dirty 
work which needs to be done, and which is well clone, 
provided it be done by dirty fellows. About the same 
philosophy is taught by that Scripture which declares (in 
substance) that "offenses must needs come, but woe unto 
him by whom they come!" 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Lancaster, January 29, i860. 

Dear Brother — Soon after finishing my letter to you 
day before yesterday, I went for Becky according to expec- 
tation. I stopped here on my way to see Mr. Thomas, and 
found him quite ill. I went on, however, and got Becky, 
and Mollie, and Genie. Mr. Thomas got worse in my ab- 
sence, and sent Bill to hurry me back; when I met Bill, I 
hurried on there as fast as I could, and on getting here 
found Mr. Thomas in great pain with his head — not sick 
headache, but a headache, resulting, I think, from nervous 
prostration. I sent for Alfriend, who soon came. He .staid 
until after dinner yesterday, and then went home and sent 
his brother, who staid until early this morning. Mr. Thomas 
is now greatly better. Of course, I did not go home, and 
the children and I have been here ever since we came from 
the school. My opinion of Mr. Thomas' case is, that it is 
the result of the sudden withdrawal of the stimulant to 
which his system had become accustomed. He has been 
suffering more or less in the same way ever since the first 
attack about which I wrote you soon after his return from 
the Southwest. What sustained him during the trip was, I 
think, the excitement of travel and looking after his lands. 
He also passed safely through the period of our adjourned 
court here, borne up, as he doubtless was, by the excite- 
ment of court and the company he saw. When that ex- 
citement was withdrawn, the collapse came ; such is my 
theory. I told him so to-day, but he expressed his dissent 
from it. My own judgment is decided on the point; hence 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 201 

my prescription was different from the doctors. They, as 
usual, put iiim on starvation. I recommended a generous 
diet, in moderate quantities, and he has accordingly been 
on oysters since yesterday evening. He says the oysters 
are curing him. He is certainly greatly relieved. I have 
also recommended nitric acid as a tonic, and he is going 
to try it. The doctors have now come very fully into my 
line of treatment, and have made an addition to it this 
morning in the form of a nervine stimulant composed of 
ammonia and valerian. To me, the case seems to involve 
nothing but plain sailing ; the system ought to be built up 
by tonics and generous diet, carefully and moderately used. 
The mind, too, needs to be doctored, even more than the 
body. I have managed him with a skill that greatly pleased 
me, because it has worked good results, and has worked 
them in the precise way I anticipated. I have contrived to 
get him mounted on the oyster sensation, with a most con- 
fident faith in its virtue. He is now riding the oyster hobby 
beautifully ; in fact, he needs a little watching to keep him 
from jading the animal. I go along with him to regulate 
his paces, and he allows me to do so without any resist- 
ance. One great point in my programme is to keep the 
doctors well abused. Last night I got my mail, and in it 
three, yes four, letters from you, I now have got all that 

you addressed to me at Macon 

What was there to make you laugh in the editorial on 
you from the Louisville Journal? I don't understand your 
laughing-. Was it the artful use the fellow made of circum- 
stances to guild his notions about you in the lines of prob- 
ability? 1 suppose so, but I am in doubt. This editorial 
doesn't very well support Dr. Bush's declaration, which I 
read to-day in a letter from him to Mr. Thomas, to the effect 
that the editor of t\\c Journal is for you for the Presidency. 
Bush declares himself to be for you, and says you would be 
exceedingly acceptable to Kentucky. He says he wants 
Georgia to press you before the Charleston Convention. 

The meeting between me and Becky, the other day, was 
quite an event for both of us ; she met me 300 yards be- 
fore I got to the house, and was almost out of breath. I 
do not remember to have felt such a gush of real, bounding, 
childish joy at any time within twenty years, as I did when 
19* 



202 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

she sprang into my arms. Her own joy was irresistibly 
infectious. The very first words she uttered were these, 
between her puffing and panting for exhaustion: "Papa, 
I'm (puff) learning (puff) fast." "Bless the darling" 
was my response as I enfolded her again in my arms, 
and almost squeezed out of her what breath she had left. 
You may think I cried, but I didn't ; I was too glad to cry. 
I desired very much to see the meeting between her and 
her little sisters, but I missed it. The day was so cold and 
windy that I put her in the carriage instead of the buggy 
with me, and after meeting Bill, I made such haste as to 
leave the carriage far behind. So I was in Mr. Thomas' 
room when the carriage arrived here, and the children had 
got together before I was aware of its arrival. They were 
very, very glad to see each other ; but from what I heard, 
the meeting between them was not so demonstrative as I 
had expected it to be. I think Becky's meeting with me 
had taken off somewhat of the edge of her joy. After that, 
there was something approaching a sort of collapse. I 
think that the new associations of the school have already 
had a very visible improving effect upon her. I would give 
you divers instances of things I have heard her say, to 
make good the proof of my assertion, but I have got sense 
enough to know that I am a fool, and so keep my folly to 

myself. This letter has been 

written without any fire ; and though the weather has greatly 
moderated in a day or two, still it is cold enough to render 
it desirable to hunt a fire, after so long sitting without one ; 
so I will hasten to an end. 

I have just heard to-day of a place in Jefferson county, 
which I think will suit me, and I am going on Tuesday (if 
nothing happens unforeseen to prevent) to look at it It is 
about eight or nine miles from Louisville, on the road from 
the Shoals (of Ogechee) to Louisville, on Rocky Comfort 
creek. It is known as the old Cobb place, and is now owned 
by Bob Phinizy, of Augusta. There are four thousand 
acres of it, and his price is four dollars per acre. I hear 
that it is capital land; if so, this is even a better bargain 
than Simpson's purchase of the Fitz-Simmons place. I 
am obliged to have another place. I do not need so much 
as 4,000 acres more, but I don't object to the quantity at 
all, La7id is going to be land in this country — that is my 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 203 

judgment ; so now for the fire. You said you wanted to get 
a cheerful letter from me. This is, I think, on the whole, a 
pretty cheerful one, and a faithful copy of my thoughts while 
I have been writing it. Good-bye. 

Affectionately, Linton. 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, October 14, 1864. 

Dear Brother — No letter from you yesterday. In my 
letter of yesterday, I forgot to say that one of yours, whose 
reception I acknowledged, was the one containing the sad 
news of the death of poor Dick Greer. ''^ I am truly pained 
at this news. Poor Dick was characterized by a frankness 
and honesty that made me like him very much from a boy 
up ; and then he seemed to have a relish for life, which 
renders his early death peculiarly sad. Poor Dick ! Well 
do I remember the trip which he and his mother took with 
me from their house to Hamilton, when he was a baby in 
his mother's arms. Well do I remember, too, some of the 
incidents of that trip, which owed their origin to his state 

of babyhood Dick was more closely 

associated with his mother, in my memory, than any other 
of her children, and death is a renewal to me of my sense 
of her loss. Poor Dick ! Truly do I mourn his untimely 
fall. 

Poor Catharine ! Poor Catharine ! How vividly do I re- 
member her death-stricken face as we saw it in the coffin — 
reposing calm and pale amidst the framing of premature 
gray hair, which spoke of affliction and pain long endured 
before death's kind release ! Oh, God ! how sharp the pang 
that flashes through my breast from the memory of that 
mournful sight! 

I am reminded to tell you of a talk which the children 
and I had on the way to Mr. Thomas' the last time we 
went there. It started from a sudden remark which 
Claude made about you. She said, "Papa, if uncle EUic 
was a school-teacher, his scholars wouldn't learn any- 
thing." "Why not?" said I. " Because, " said she, " he'd 
tell 'em everything." I thought it was a decidedly good 

* A nephew killed in the battle near Winchester, Virginia. 



204 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

hit on you. That remark led us into a talk about their 
school and their studies, and to some questions from me 
as to how each of them was getting on in each study. 
When I struck Becky on her arithmetic, Emm put in her 
oar. Said she, "Papa, sister Becky has got to be nearly 

as bad as . She most always juisses her 'rithme- 

tic lessons." Against this very pointed assertion, Becky 
entered a vehement protest. Without stopping to settle 

the dispute, I asked Emm how it was v/ith ? In 

answering this question, she went into a vein of humor al- 
most as rich as I ever heard from Mr. Toombs, or your Bob, 
and very much of the same kind which I have often seen 
displayed by those two masters of the art. I can't give 
you much idea of it, because the best part of it consisted 

in her viiniicry of poor 's actions while undergoing 

the torture of having a very bad recitation wrung out of 
her. I can only give you a point or two in words, leaving 
you to imagine the exquisite mimicry by which the words 

were accompanied. *' ," said she, "why, she ahvays 

misses. When uncle Carlos gives her a question in 'rith- 
metic, she just goes to saying the question over, and over, 
and over, and counts on her fingers this way," (mimicking). 
"Then she stops skying over the question, but keeps on 
counting with her fingers, and goes to working her lips as 
hard as she can, this away ; then uncle Carlos tells her, ' I 
don't hear you ; ' then she works her lips and counts her 
fingers faster than ever, but don't say a word. At last, 
uncle Carlos * tells her the answer ; and then she jumps this 
away, (mimicking,) and says: 'Mr. Stevens, I was jest 
agoing to say that ! ' " 

This will give you an idea. Poor L would have 

been sorely mortified if she had seen herself as portrayed 
by Emm. There was not, however, the slightest tinge 
of bad nature in a single one of the many pungent strokes; 
it was all pure fun. Poor 's agonies could not pos- 
sibly have a keener or more appreciative eye to observe 
them than Emm showed she had had, hanging over them 
like a bee over a flower to gather its sweets. The child 

* Rev. Carlos W. Stevens, who taught a select school of girls and 
young ladies. He married the aunt of Linton's children ; hence, they 
called him uncle. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 20$ 

gets this talent from her mother, who had it in a higher de- 
gree, I think, than anybody — certainly than any woman — I 
ever knew 

"The old man Anthony," to whom reference is made in 
the following letter, is the Rev. Samuel Anthony, of the 
Methodist Church, so well known in Georgia, and so much 
beloved and respected by a multitude of acquaintances 
throughout the State. He, Rev. Mr. Jackson, and Mr. 
Benjamin T. Harris, had spent an evening at Judge Ste- 
phens' house: 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, February 7, i860. 

Dear Brother — When the old 

man Anthony bade me good-bye, he kept my hand in his 
for a few moments, and said to me : "Don't you forget the 
one thing needful — you need religion to bring up these little 
ones right." I think I give his very words. The tears 
started in his eyeSj arid I confess they started in mine, too. 
I have always thought that he was a good man, and I have 
a very great respect for his old-fashioned, out-spoken piety. 

He used to be a prime favorite of uncle Jack's 

You may be curious to know whether the old gentleman 
recognized me or not at sight. He did, but his memory 
had been refreshed by seeing me on two occasions since he 
used to see me at uncle Jack's — once at Liberty camp- 
meeting, (in Greene,) in 1847, and again in Macon last 
summer. He is a remarkable man in some particulars — re- 
markable for his simple piety, and being totally devoid of 
what is properly called ambition ; but perhaps not least re- 
markable for his marvelous state of physical preservation. 
He looks just as he used to look a quarter of a century 
ago, when he must have then been at least thirty-five 
years old. He is sixty at least now, but scarcely seems 
to be forty 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, February 8, i860. 

Dear Brother — You asked 

me in one of your late letters whether I had read Mrs. 



206 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

Bryan's "Lovable Heroines." I have read it, and most 
heartily indorse it. Her criticism on Beulah expressed my 
sentiments exactly, so far as it went. She is an uncom- 
monly sensible woman — a real woman — only more of a 
woman than most of her sex, and, therefore, a better speci- 
men of it. I have thought more of her since I have heard 
that she inclines to fat, because that gives me assurance 
that she is a flesh and blood worr.an — none of your pining, 
poetical shadows that live upon moonbeams and dew- 
drops 

The gifted authoress above referred to is Mrs. Mary E. 
Bryan — now (1876) at the head of the literary department 
of TJlc Sunny South. 

[ From L. S. to A. H, S. ] 

Sparta, February 1 1 , i S60. 

Dear Brother — To-day, I got your letter of yesterday, 
and yesterday evening, on my return from bringing Becky 
home, I got one of the day before. And this is another 
anniversary of the day of your birth. You were born forty- 
eight years ago. Oh ! what crowds and floods of events 
that you can number, and what innumerable myriads more, 
of which you knew nothing, have transpired in that period 
of forty-eight years ! Oh ! it is a long, long time ! but I 
am not in a moralizing mood to-day. The day has so far 
(and it is now four o'clock in the afternoon) been an unusu- 
ally pleasant one to me. That part of it which has been 
most so was spent with my children. At this very mo- 
ment, I hear their busy little feet pattering down the stair- 
steps that go up from the library door. They have been 
up stairs on some raid or other, I suppose. Becky's re- 
turn home yesterday was quite an event to her and her 
little sisters, and, most of all, to the negroes. In coming 
home, she repeatedly urged me to make Charlie go faster, 
sometimes in a direct way, and at other times by insinua- 
tion. For instance: she asked me once, with a cunning 
smile, which was the best to make Charlie go fast — whipping 

or clucking Have you seen Mr. 

Toombs' speech ? It is one of great power. It is the worst 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 207 

drubbing that I have ever seen administered to the Repub- 
licans I was much amused at your 

quarrel with the common mode of designating colds, pains, 
etc., as my cold, my headache, etc., but I hardly think you 
made good your point. I think, after all, there is a prop- 
erty in the things, though they may be, as you say, our 
decided enemies. It is an involuntary and disagreeable 
property, but still it is a property. The mode of speech 
which you criticise is carried so far, and properly carried so 
far, as to say — )ny ciiony, my trouble, my grief, etc. The 
epithet "mj'" is not necessarily one of endearment, but it 
is one of property; it expresses a peadhnn you have in 
the pain, or in the enmity — a stock which is yours, etc. I 
have just got your letter of yesterday, your birthday. I 
am glad to know that your cold has got better — or rather, 
that you have got better of your cold — that you are gain- 
ing ground on your enemy. All well to-day. It is a 
bright, beautiful day, but rather cold 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, February i6, i860. 

Dear Brother — My dinner is just over; and not feeling 
inclined to do any work this afternoon, I turn to you for a 
little pleasant occupation. No letter from you to-day. I 
missed the accustomed visitor a good deal. This morning, 
I sent you a long letter, written yesterday, with a post- 
script added this morning. It reinclosed to you the letter 
which you sent me from Mr. Toombs. While I think of 
it, let me mention several letters which I have written to 
you, but of which you have made no mention. It is pos- 
sible that you have acknowledged some of them by their 
dates, for I don't keep much account of dates in the ordi- 
nary run of days ; but you have not acknowledged all of 
them, either by dates or accounts, or other marks of iden- 
tity. One is the letter in which I commented on your re- 
cently developed "abomination of this way of carrying 
pipes about," and also gave an analysis of the humor in a 
certain scene in Sterne's two Shandy brothers, and asked 
you if I had not given you an analysis of that same thing 
at some former time. Did you get that letter? Another 
is the letter enclosing Mr. Crittenden's letter to you and a 



208 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

copy of your reply to it. I made some remarks on your 
reply, mostly in a laughing vein. I remember I said your 
speculations about "organ-issues" struck me very much as 
Jenkinsons learning about the "Cosmogony of Creation" 
struck the old vicar in jail. It seemed to me I had heard 
something very much like that before. You have made 
no allusion to that letter. Did you get it? When a fellow 
writes a letter intended to produce a laugh, and never hears 
from it, he feels about as flat as he does when he attempts 
a joke in company, and gets no response from the company. 
That is a very bad feeling; I don't know whether you ever 
had it or not — I have. Another letter, from which I have 
never heard a word, was the one about the night spent with 
me by Mr. Thomas, and the old crazy professor. Besides 
these, there are yet others, but I do not now remember 
them. I am inclined to think that you never received 
them. Silence from me on such matters would not mean 
so much as your silence does, for you are usually very care- 
ful about acknowledging letters, while I am generally very 
remiss. Well, to change the subject: I have just turned a 
beggar away from my door without a cent; I don't believe 
I ever did so before. He was a great big strapping fellow, 
who came to me with a "paper." I took it in my hand, 
but read only enough of it to confirm mc in my supposi- 
tion that it was a begging paper, and then handed it back 
to him, remarking that I had nothing to give him. He 
then drew out and offered to me a memorandum book and 
pencil, and said, in pretty good broken English, that the 
sum he asked of me "was but small." I did not take the 
book, but replied to him, " I do not wish to give you any- 
thing." He bowed with an air that might have become an 
ofiended prince, and retired without a word. Isn't it a cu- 
rious thing that such transparent scamps should be offended 
at a refusal? The offense certainly is on the other side, for 
the presentation of one of their "papers" to a man is a 
plain impeachment of his understanding. The action put 
into words means exactly this: "I take you to befool 
enough to give me something. " As I turned from the door, 
after dismissing the beggar Claude and Emm came run- 
ning out of the nursery to meet me, their little faces all 
radiant with glee, and ready for a frolic. Transparent and 
certain as was the unworthiness of the application which I 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHEN'S. 2O9 

had just refused, yet the sight of my children immediately 
suggested to me that the poor fellow, too, might have little 
ones, and that if so, they were probably in want and 
wretchedness, while mine were so bright and happy. What 
made the difference, except the accidents of life? All these 
thoughts passed through my mind like a flash, and for one 
instant I felt something like a pang of repentance. But re- 
flection immediately corrected it, and I allowed the begging 
impostor to go on his empty way 



Hon. Iverson L. Harris, formerly one of the Justices of 
the Supreme Court of the State, in a letter from Milledge- 
ville, dated iith of November, 1873, in forwarding, under 
the published notice of the author of this memoir, some 
letters he had received from Judge Stephens, uses the fol- 
lowing language: 



"One of his letters, commenting on Bailey's Essay on 
Truth, and on the formation and publication of opinions, 
evinces such power of intellect in treating that difficult sub- 
ject — belief in miracles — that I ever thought it ought to go 
before the public. So highly have I ever appreciated it, 
that I ventured to read it to distinguished churchmen, that 
they might learn to correct their answers to Hume. It im- 
pressed them favorably. In my poor judgment, it gives 
the only true answer to Hume which a great logical mind 
can give. I esteem it as an original answer, displaying a 
vigor and profundity of thought which placed, at a bound. 
Judge Stephens with the highest class of thinkers. . . . 
"I not only admired his high intellect and manly charac- 
ter, but really loved him. I would have gone to Sparta to 
have evinced my regard when he was committed to mother 
earth, but disease forbade the attempt. I desired very 
much to have been at Atlanta when General Toombs of- 
fered his report and resolutions, designed as some slight 
memorial. I could not have sat silently by." 

Here follows the letter alluded to : 
20* 



210 BFOCRAI'HICAT, SKETCH OF 

f L. S. to Hon. Iverson L. Harris.] 

Sparta, April 21, i860. 

My Dear Sir — On returning home last Saturday night, 
from court at Atlant:i, I found your highly appreciated letter 
of the 31st ultimo. I was called home by the illness of 
one of my children, and have since been so weary and 
spiritless that I have not, until now, undertaken to bring 
up my correspondence, which had fallen in arrears during 
my absence. Instead of o)ic sick child, I found all tJirec of 
my children quite unwell, and two of them decidedly sick. 
I am glad to be able to say now that they are all on foot 
again, with a fair promise of complete restoration to their 
usual excellent health. 

I will carry you the books, as you request, when I go over 
to court. My brother and I have both finished reading 
them, as you supposed; and for myself, I will say that the 
reading of them has been of decided adv^antage to me. 
The fairness, and candor, and courage which mark them 
cannot fail to exert a happy influence upon any mind whose 
vocation is the investigation of tnitli. The spirit of the 
work (for the two books are but parts of one work) is just 
such as ought to characterize every judge. And now, hav- 
ing said thus much of the work, I must say more to avoid 
a misunderstanding of my opinion concerning it. The spirit 
of it is fine, and its scaffolding of rules and preliminary reason- 
ing, admirable ; but the conclusion to which it mounts from 
these premises, I regard as almost inexcusably illogical. 
That conclusion, as you know, is that a miracle cannot be 
established by human testimony. The author takes Mr. 
Hume's definition of a miracle, to wit, a violation of the 
laws of nature, and then concludes that human testimony 
is inadequate to establish a violation, because the violation 
involves a departure from the unifonnity of causation. The 
uniformity of causation he rightly assumes as a necessary 
truth which the mind cannot be made to doubt by any pos- 
sible accumulation of human testimony. Now, I remark, 
in the first place, that if his argument is good, it proves 
much more than he claims it proves — not only that a mir- 
acle cannot be established by human testimony, but that a 
miracle is absolutely incredible, impossible, beyond the power 
of God. I do not say this consequence proves the argu- 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 211 

mcnt unsound, but I state the consequence merely to aid 
a full conception of the argument itself. There is no covert 
in which a fallacy is more apt to lurk than in a definition. 
So in this case, I think, the whole error lies in defining a 
miracle to be a violation of the laws of nature. Nor do I 
perceive that the churchmen have helped the matter the 
least in the world by defining it to be, not a violation, but 
only a suspension of the laws of nature. This is no nearer 
the truth than the other is, nor does it at all escape from the 
force of the argument; for a suspension of the laws of 
nature is a departure from the uniformity of causation 
just as certainly as a violation is such a departure. The 
truth expressed by the term, "uniformity of causation," is 
that the same cause, or combination of causes, will invari- 
ably, infallibly and necessarily produce the same effects. 
Now, to say that the laws of nature are suspended is simply 
to say that the very same combination of causes, which 
heretofore invariably produced a given effect, is still present, 
but is no longer followed by its appropriate effect — that 
is to say, that causation has ceased to be uniform, and the 
uniformity of causation ceases to be a truth. I think, there- 
fore, that a "suspension" affords no escape from the con- 
clusion to which we are inevitably led, starting from Mr. 
Hume's definition. I think the truth is that his defini- 
tion, as well as that of the churchmen, is both erroneous 
and highly unphilosophieal. The miracles to which these 
definitions relate are those recorded in the Scriptures. 
Now, these neither involve, nor profess to involve, either 
any violation or suspension of the uniformity of causation. 
They are only exhibitions of extraordinary and superhuman 
power, differing from the ten thousand other daily exhibi- 
tions of such superhuman power in nothing but this: 
they were given to man as a witness for the truths and 
teachings that accompanied them. The miracles of the 
gospel imply no more power than we see exhibited by 
nature every day of our lives. The causes, or co)nbination of 
causes, which produce these results are in both classes of 
cases equally hid from us, the result being designed for a 
special object in the one case, and, in the other case, the 
object being often as obscure to us as the cause is. To say 
of any event or phenomenon, that it violates the uniformity 
of causation, assumes that we knew with certainty the exact 



212 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

combination of causes operating in tlie case — an assumption 
which, so far from being true, would be absolutely false in 
almost, if not indeed in every case of a natural phenome- 
non. Our author puts a case: He says that it would be an 
incredible thing if all the witnesses in the world should 
state that they had seen ice fail to melt when exposed to a 
white heat. His argument is that any man, having once 
seen ice melt in a white heat, cannot afterwards be made to 
doubt that it will always melt under the same circumstances, 
because it is a necessary truth that the same cause will al- 
ways produce the same effect. He quietly assumes that the 
cause is the same — no more, no less — but the identical same 
cause which he has seen produce the effect of melting ice. 
Such an assumption seems to me to be highly unphilosoph- 
ical. It amounts to an assumption that there can be no 
causes at work in a given case, except such as are patoit to 
the human senses. For poor little mole-sighted man to de- 
clare that, in any given case, there is no single cause in op- 
eration, except such as he wots of, is just about as ridicu- 
lous and arrogant as if the ant from the top of his hill 
should deny that he was moving at an immensely rapid 
rate, upon the ground that no such motion was sensible to 
the very acute wisdom of his antship. I remember read- 
ing a story once of an East Indian Chief, who was utterly 
incredulous when an English officer told him that he had 
often seen water in a solid state. He thought the fact as- 
serted involved a departure from the uniformity of causa- 
tion, and he rejected it as spurious. His error was in as- 
suming- that his own experience was sufficient to enable him 
to know all the causes in operation, and that it was impos- 
sible there could have been any cause unknown to him. I 
have no idea that Jesus raised Lazarus from death, or fed 
the multitude, or himself arose from the dead, by either 
violating or suspending the law of causation, but he did all 
these things by using causes and agencies which were en- 
tirely beyond their comprehension. The Godhead stood re- 
vealed, not by results without adequate cause, but by the use 
of agencies which defied human power to command them. 
The truly philosophic spirit is cautious about pronouning 
an impossibility. There is quite as much lack of philosophy 
in believing too reluctantly, or in refusing to believe at all, 
as there is in believing too easily. True wisdom neither 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 213 

rejects as impossible nor adopts as true, except according 
to evidence. The range of real impossibility is exceedingly- 
limited. I should not be at all surprised if you and I should 
live until the progress of science shall render the skepticism 
of our author concerning the melting of ice quite as ludi- 
crous as we already know that the skepticism of the Indian 
Chief was concerning its existence. The chemist may yet 
be able to hold ice in a white heat without melting, by the 
use of some agency at present unknown to science, and 
also imperceptible to the human senses. 

But I must stop and beg your pardon for having gone 
into the reasons why I dissent from the conclusion of the 
author of the work under consideration. After all, I have 
only given you an outline of my views; but all I set out to 
do was simply to express my dissent without any reasons 
at all. I must repeat, in conclusion of these remarks upon 
the work, that the spirit of it is very fine, and highly essen- 
tial in every man engaged in the pursuit of truth. 

I feel very much gratified that you concur with me in my 
views of drunkenness in accusations of crime. I never felt 
more confidence in the soundness of a conclusion, and in 
the soundness of a process of reasoning, by which I arrived 
at a conclusion. That men, who are opposed to drunken- 
ness and in favor of good morals, and a wholesome admin- 
istration of the laws, should abuse the decision, as many 
such men have done, can be explained only by their igno- 
rance of what the decision really accomplishes. They are 
indignant because the decision declares that drunkenness 
may be considered in investigating whether an act has been 
done, or if done, with what intent it was done ; but they 
utterly forget that the light which drunkenness casts is 
sometimes against the accused, and that the decision, there- 
fore, declares a principle which not only protects the guilt- 
less, but also uncovers the guilty. But most of all, they 
forget, or rather they do not perceive, that this decision 
puts the punishment of drunken men upon a ground per- 
fectly consistent with reason and humanity, and, therefore, 
greatly breaks down the reluctance with which juries inflict 
the punishment. The decision explodes the idea prevalent, 
even among judges and law-writers, that a very drunk man 
has not mind enough to furnish the mental element in 
crime, and is punished by virtue of a constructive capacity 



214 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

infused into him by law. The best account which even Mr. 
Bishop, the latest and most scientific writer on the subject, 
has been able to give of the reasonableness of punishing a 
drunken man is, that he has not sufficient mind to commit 
the crime at the time when he does the act, yet his intent 
to get drunk is an unlawful intent, and coalesces with the 
act when done, and so gives it a criminal quality. Would 
not you shudder at hanging a man for a drunken action, if 
you could not give any better justification than that for 
your conduct? If I had to say what was the greatest merit 
of the decision, my answer would be, that it has rescued 
the doctrine of punishing drunken men from the miserable 
sophism by which it has been heretofore defended, and has 
placed it on a neiv and rational ground, and so has greatly 
contributed to the advancement of public justice. But my 
sheet is out. 

Yours, most truly and respectfully, 

Linton Stephens* 

P. S. — After the approbation of his own conscience, the 
next dearest reward to a faithful public servant is the ap- 
probation of those to whom his service is rendered ; and I 
therefore do not consider it out of taste to tell you what I 
have heard of yon. My brother told me that your charge 
to the jury in the negro murder case in Greene was the 
ablest he ever heard given to a jury on the law of homi- 
cide. He said he sometimes differed with your rulings, 
but he was delighted with your administration, and that 
you had made great progress in the good opinions of your 
bar. DeGraffenreid (Wm. K.) told me, at Atlanta the 
other day, that your bar — and he thought the people, too — 
were greatly pleased with your administration. One point 
which they both selected for special praise was your inde- 
pendcnee and fairness. There are few men to whom I would 
write as I have written to you ; but it is only your due, and 
if a friend may not tell you of pleasant things, who may? 

[ From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, February 19, i860. 

Dear Brother — This is Sunday evening about 5 o'clock. 
Mr. Thomas has just gone home. He and I went to the 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 21$ 

Methodist Church to-day to hear Bishop Pierce preach. It 
was a good sermon, and about as rich in language and ilhis- 
tration as any I ever heard from him. His text was the 
exhortation of Barnabas to the Church at Antioch to cleave 
unto God with purpose of heart. The purpose of heart 
was a full purpose, reserving nothing, but determined in 
all things to do the will of God. One of his figures was, 
that, as to himself, he had felt this purpose as a wall of 
adamant on the one side, and the other, the world, the flesh 
and the Devil, shutting them out, and shutting him in, in 

moral safety, etc 

When we, or rather when I returned home from church, 
I found your long letter of yesterday. This is the longest 
letter I ever got from you, or anybody else. I had read 
it almost half through when dinner was announced, but I 
finished it before I went to dinner. It touched many points, 
and they were all interesting to me. It was a deeply in- 
teresting letter to me. The theme in it, the most interest- 
ing, was my children. What you think of them was partly 
suspected before, if not fully comprehended, but I confess 
that its expression was to me a savor of exceeding sweet- 
ness. I think it will do me good all the days of my life, 
unless, indeed, my children should hereafter force me to 
abandon my own estimate of how well they merit the opin- 
ions you have expressed concerning them. It is one of the 
greatest pleasures I have to see them love and reverence 
you, and feel that they are worthy of your high estimate 
of them. There is one subject in your letter on which I 
will make a remark while it is in my mind. I allude to 
what you say about your silence as to some of my late 
pleasantries which you say were made at your expense, and 
therefore did not make you laugh. Now, I never expected 
you to acknowledge them by saying that you had ImtgJied 
over them. I never expected you to do more than ac- 
knowledge "a touch," as the fencers do when touched by 
the foil — the foil that covers the sharp point that would 
make a wound but for the friendly covering. Now, the 
humor of my hits at you, if humor there was, was the 
point, and my playful motive the covering which disarmed 
it of its power to pierce 



2l6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, February 23, i860. 

Dear Brother — In my last 

letter, I intended to say a great many things which occurred 
to me at the time, but which I was not in the mood to say 
then. I was in one of my states when nothing seems to be 
worth the doing of it, and when I hastened, therefore, to 
the end of my letter. One of the omitted things was that 
I had read the article in the \Vcst}iii)iitcr, on "Social Or- 
ganism," before I got your letter about it, and had formed 
the distinct intention of calling your attention to it, as show- 
ing an almost marvelous coincidence with your views on 
that subject. I was very much struck with the coincidence, 
but not half so much with the speculation itself, as I have 
with some of your speculations in conversation and letters 
on the same theme. It was truly tedious, as you charac- 
terized it, and I did not read the whole of it. I read 
enough to perfectly get the run of it. There are a great 
many things which, in this day of 2vords, words, WORDS, 
I read in the same way. They are such things as I am not 
w^illing to leave totally unread, and yet, which I cannot 
afford to peruse through all of the platitudes, and common- 
places, and repetitions which are employed to invest them. 
I therefore pick out such of the real grains as are obvious 
to inspection, and leave all the rest as chaff. No doubt my 
leavings of chaff often contain some grains of wheat. . . 
Have you seen "A. B. 's" echo of the " Cato-like lamen- 
tations" of "that virtuous magistrate, " Judge Holt, oyer 
the abomination of desolation that will result from the de- 
cision of the Supreme Court in poor Jones' case? I saw 
it in a very conspicuous place in the Constitutionalist yesterday. 
"That virtuous magistrate!" To say the least of it, that 
is a very easy virtue which manifests itself in punishing the 
crimes of other people, and that virtue is still more easy 
which inflicts the punishment without troubling itself to in- 
vestigate whether the crime has been committed or not. 
To the practice of this virtue, nothing is requisite, but free 
rein to a savage heart. The natural gravitation of malice 
and blood-thirstiness will accomplish the result. '' Facilis 
descensus Averni.'' To the honor of mankind, this ' ' species " 
of "virtue" is rare, and when found is generally worked 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 21^ 

up as the material for executioners. I am afraid I shall lose 
my patience under demagogical censures of my public acts. 
It is hard to remain peaceful under misrepresentation and 
obloquy, when you are conscious of holding a rod which 
could smite your assailant. It is hard to even bide your 
time. I can do it, but I say it is hard ■ 

-[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, February 29, 1 860. 

Dear Brother — I have 

finished the opinion in Jones' case. I just concluded to 
throw overboard my beautiful theory, indicating the con- 
sistency of the law in punishing drunk men for murder. 
It costs me a pang to do it ; for I have got quite in love 
with it. I think it would give me more reputation with in- 
tellectual people than anything else I have written ; but it 
makes the opinion too long. I think the sacrifice is needed, 
and I shall make it. You can't know how much virtupe I 
am showing, unless you knew zvJiat a good thing it is. . . 

There is a great clamor about this decision among the 
people, I hear. Several men in this county say they are 
against the court on account of it. I suppose it is so else- 
where. Let it be so. I am rather glad of it ; I know they 
can't stand the argument. I think my day will come, but 
I would rather have my day, as it is, than theirs. I am right 
and know it, and have demonstrated it. All the clamors 
of Bedlam — and the clamors of this world are Bedlam 
clamors — can't make me regret it, or doubt it. I will not 
say I have contempt for the opinions of mankind, for that 
is not the feeling. I prefer to have their favorable opinions, 
and do many things to obtain them. It is more pleasant 
on many accounts to have their opinions on your side; but 
I do have an utter disregard for them as an index of truth. 
There are several men whose opinions against my own 
would lead me to examine mine with great care — that is 
all. I have often done so before, and changed my opinion 
on re-examination ; but even that has been in cases where 
I had not before made much, if any, special examination. 
The clamors of a i)iob, however large and respectable in the 
general acceptance of the term, would scarcely have that 
effect. They would not make me re-examine when 1 had 

21* 



2l8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

examined the case well before, but would, where the first 
examination had been slight, and the opinion formed on 
it not strong 



The decision referred to in the two foregoing letters was 
the celebrated one pronounced by him in the case of Jones 
7's. The State, noted so conspicuously in Judge Bleckley's 
paper, given on a preceding page. 

» 
[From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 

Sparta, March 5, i860. 

Dear Brother — I this evening 

finished the opinion in Jones' case, and turned it over to 
Charley to copy for me. I will send you a copy by Wed- 
nesday's mail, I hope. It is fourteen pages long, but I 
think the public will read it. I have put it in readable 
shape for the general reader. I had a much greater affec- 
tion for the bantling several days ago than I have now. I 
still think I have cut the Gordian knot about punishing 
drunken men for their actions, consistently with general 
legal principles, and of yet allowing drunkenness to be used, 
as an instrument of evidence, to throw light wherever it can 
throw it, either on the physical or mental element of crime. 
In other words, it is a satisfactory solution to me of a prob- 
lem not before solved to my satisfaction. I had intended 
to write a piece for the newspapers about the clamors against 
the court, but I have, for the present at least, lost my in- 
terest in the subject 

Who is "Fair Play" that writes in the Macon TelegrapJi, 
protesting against your name being mixed up with the 
Presidency? I am sure he expresses your sentiments, and 
I should like to know who he is. Did I tell you that Jack 
Lane is going to the Milledgeville convention, but not as a 
delegate ? He said that, as he was one of the executive com- 
mittee who called the convention, he preferred not to be a 
delegate. You might write him a letter giving him your 
wishes in regard to your name being kept entirely out of 
the convention 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 2lg 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, March 17, i860. 

Dear Brother — Now, you needed 

not to tell me that you would not speak to anybody else, 
as you would to me, concerning your speeches ; nor did you 
need to make the least apology for speaking so to me. I 
think it a legitimate pleasure that every man feels in a sense 
of having done anything well, and in having others to en- 
tertain the same opinion of it. I don't think there is any 
indelicacy in expressing one's true opinion of his own per- 
formance to another, who is interested in it, and who can 
receive the opinion in the same spirit in which it was com- 
municated — knowing full well that men often entertain good 
opinions of their performances, whether they express them 
or not. You need not hesitate to express to me the best 
opinion you may have of anything you may have done, for 
it gives me as much pleasure as it does you; and I know, 
from experience, it is a pleasure which can never be fully 
enjoyed, either on the part of the one or the other, unless 
there is some one to share it and sympathize with it. 
There is nothing truer, in all my experience, than that all 
pleasures are doubled, and all sorrows divided, by being 
truly shared with one true and sympathizing heart. I am 
glad you like Harris as a judge, and that he is gaining in 
the good opinion of his bar. He is a man I like. He has 
his own peculiarities, as all rra/ men have; and he has, be- 
sides, a bottom of sincerity and honor which very /cza 
men do have. He is a favorite with me 



[From L. S. to A. 11. S. ] 

Sparta, May i, i860. 

Dear Brother — I begin to 

believe the Charleston Convention will end in a row, and 
that Black Republicanism will be triumphant. The Demo- 
cratic party, instead of being concentrated against the pub- 
lic enemy, presents the spectacle of quarreling about the 
ownership of the- House, while the burglars are rifling it. 



220 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

MiLLEDGEViLLE, May 1 8, i860. 
Dear Brother — I have been very busy, or I would have 
written you sooner. Thweatt will to-day send you a tele- 
graphic dispatch which came here for you yesterday, and I 
inclose you another of the same import, and from the same 
person, and by one day, of earlier date. I opened them 
both, in order to see whether they ought to be sent by 
special messenger. You have, of course, seen Mr. Toombs' 
letter. You are right about him. His intimation that the 
Northern Democrats had attempted to interpolate into 
the party creed the doctrine that a Territorial Legislature 
has the power to abolish slavery is very extraordinary. 
How did they attempt it? All they wanted was the Cin- 
cinnati platform, and this is just the Kansas Bill of 1854 on 
tJiat point — nothing more, nothing less. The platform 
adopts the bill. When that bill was on its passage, they 
said then — just what they say now — that the Territorial Leg- 
islature would have the power to regulate slavery as they 
might please. We said not. Each side was willing to trust 
its own version of the Constitution, out of which the differ- 
ence of opinion grew ; hence, provision was made in the bill 
for referring the question to the Supreme Court. Mr. 
Toombs liked that arrangement, and advocated it, when he 
had no decision of the court on the subject, and no expres- 
sion of opinion. Now, he has got a decision in his favor so 
far as the power of the Territorial Legislature can be de- 
rived from a transfer by Congress, and the opinion of the 
court obiter; also, upon the power as derived from the prin- 
ciple of self-government. He was content to refer the ques- 
tion to the court in utter ignorance of their opinion, and he 
is not satisfied now for the reference to stand as it was made, 
when the court has declared their opinion in his favor. 
For my part, I like the arrangement none the less since 
finding that the judge is in my favor. True, Douglas de- 
nies that the court has decided his question, and he is right 
in the denial. But if not decided, it yet remains to be de- 
cided according to the original bargain and provisions 01 
the Kansas Bill, and I have quite as much confidence now 
as I had at first in a decision in our favor. The opinion in 
our favor has not impaired my confidence; I am quite as 
ready now, as I was at first, to tolerate the contrary confi- 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHEN?. 221 

dencc of our allies. All we can require of them under the 
aj^reement is to stand by the decision already made in the one 
branch of the power, and by that which shall be made on 
the other branch of it. This they expressly reaffirmed 
their resolution to do. What more can we require of them 
without a violation of the understanding ? I had a letter from 
Reese, (of Washington, Wm. M.) and he says your letter 
expresses his views exactly. I hear that Glenn (Cobb's 
brother-in-law) is against him. I think the letters of Mr. 
Cobb and Mr. Toombs will do good in a way not intended 
by them. They will break down the Richmond movement 
by opening the door to be represented at Baltimore. A 
)icw delegation from Georgia will not secede, and such a new 
delegation will now go as the representative of both branches 
of the party. Good-bye. 

Linton Stephens. 

[From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 

Savannah, June 15, i860. 

Dear Brother — As to your 

request that I may so arrange my will as to provide against 
a separation of families among your negroes willed to me, 
I will certainly attend to it if I should outlive you. There 
is a provision in my present will, applicable to all the negroes 
I may own at my death, securing them from the separation 
of families. I intend to change my will in some particulars 
if I live in health long enough to do so after getting home 
once more, and I will look carefully to that point. I would 
like to talk to you about it, not only so far as your negroes 
are concerned, but as to the proper provision covering all 

my negroes We broke through our 

new schedule this evening, and, after sitting until 3 o'clock, 
went back at five and heard arguments until seven. This 
we did to accommodate the Augusta bar, who had a case in 
which eight or ten of them were to make speeches, and 
which they were anxious to finish this evening, and assured 
us they would finish, if we would go back and hear them 
after dinner. When we were going back after dinner, Tom 
Miller said he did not like being brought back after dinner, 
for he wanted to go to Thunderbolt to get some crabs. I 
told him if he was so unreasonable as to complain of that 



222 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

which he had himself requested, he would be very apt to 
find crabs i)i the court-house, without going to Thunderbolt 
for them. This was said in a considerable crowd at the 
court-house door, just before going in, and the miserable 
pun raised a great laugh. The laugh subsided, and Judge 
Lumpkin added, "Yes, sir; and we promise you they shall 
not be soft crabs at that." Again the crowd exploded in 
a laugh. They really seemed to think all this was excel- 
lent wit. Well, the result of our effort to work off the 
case (which had already been largely argued) was, that we 
only worked off one speech from Judge Starnes. He spoke 
two solid hours, and five minutes over, after assuring us 
that he would not speak an hour, and that they would all 
get through in two hours. Any man makes a great mis- 
take to speak longer than his promise when he is speaking 
before a court. After he passes his self-appointed limit, he 
makes the judges mad and impatient. They feel as if they 

had a grievance 

And now, for the want of 

anything better to write, I will tell you of another saying 
of mine the other night at Judge Henry's. One of the 

Misses rather sets up for a wit and a woman of 

learning. She had on hand a piece of knitting, which she 
said was Penelope's web. I asked her if she was pursuing 
Penelope's plan of unraveling it as she went. She said, 
"Oh, no!" " Well, then, "said I, ".y^/is:;, you have shown 
only a difference between your web and Penelope's — hers 
having been constantly unraveled as it was made — yours 
going on to a rapid completion ; I suppose its likeness must 
consist in having a pjvinised marriage at the end of it." 
Her reply was, " I acknowledge you have r-a-t-h-e-r got 
me." 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Macon, June 28, i860. 

Dear Brother — The first 

case we had here was a bank case. We have decided it 
against the bank directors, and all agree in opinion. It is 
Lyon's case, but I shall also give my views on it. This was 
a case against directors for an excessive indebtedness in- 
curred under their administration. Mr. Toombs' cases were 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 223 

against stockholders, and were based upon a different clause 
in the charter. This case does not, therefore, decide his 
point; but I am against him on his point. Jim Johnson 
argued this case against the directors, and argued it far 
better thftn Dougherty did the case against stockholders. 
Jim Johnson argues a case upon the principles and philos- 
ophy of the law in a style not surpassed by any man in 
Georgia. But I must now go to consultation. This has 
been written in my smoking time just after dinner. . . . 

P. S. — Just as I am closing, a storm is brewing. Charley 
has just come in, too, and told me that he has just learned, 
through a letter from his wife, that poor old General Sayre 
is dead. He died day before yesterday. 



[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Macon, June 29, i860. 

Dear Brother — It is nearly 1 1 o'clock at night, and I 
have just returned from hearing Governor Johnson* speak 

in Concert Hall The Governor spoke 

very well to-night, but he did not speak as effectively as 
usual. He had a house full, and I thought that about hah 
the crowd, who demonstrated at all, seemed to be with him. 
But I thought he had as many with him at the beginning 
as he had at the end. I will give you the particulars 
when we meet, if we should think of it then, or perhaps in 
some letter, when I have more time. For the present, I 
will only add that he does not appreciate, as I do, the point 
of greatest strength in his position — that is, the danger 
of rendering slavery odious to our allies, and to the world, 
by making it aggressive — by forcing it upon any unwilling 
people upon the face of the earth. The ark of safety and 
progress is the doctrine of perfect and universal non-inter- 
.vention, leaving all people to please themselves upon the 
subject, forcing it upon none, and securing it to all who 
desire it. If this principle becomes established as an inter- 
State doctrine, and would become established as an inter- 
national doctrine, it will, of logical necessity, become after- 
wards the doctrine among individuals of the same State or 

* Herschel V. Johnson was then a candidate for the Vice-Presidency, 



224 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

nation, and every man, the world over, will have slaves if 
he wants them, and is able to buy them. The whole battle 
of slavery turns upon the single issue of its moral right or 
moral wrong. If it is wrong, everybody ought to do all 
that can be done, consistently wdth a prudent regard to cir- 
cumstances, to abolish it ; but if it is right, everybody ought 
to have it who wants it and can get it — States or individuals. 
All legal prohibitions of it would disappear from the face of 
the earth if you once establish the doctrine that it is no 
question of right or wrong, but is only a question of polit- 
ical economy. If it is a question of political economy, it 
must be a matter of free trade, neither forced nor prohibited 
anywhere, but left to the laws of free trade everywhere, 
not going in point of fact to all places, but prohibited by 
law in no place — free as the cotton-plant and sugar-cane 
are to go anywhere, but, like them, taking root only where 
it may be found profitable. Douglas is the great champion 
of this great principle on which rest our hopes of the pro- 
gress and salvation of slavery ; and it is black ingratitude, as 
well as suicidal folly, for the South to assail him or aban- 
don him. But good-night. 

Affectionately, Linton Stephens. 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Macon, Sunday Morning, July 8, i860. 

Dear Brother — The commencement 

sermon is to be preached to-day by Dr. Joseph C. Stilesy 
Have you ever heard him ? I heard him once, about seven 
years ago, and thought he was the greatest orator I had 
ever seen in the pulpit. I must go and hear him again to- 
day, and see how that impression may be sustained or 
changed. I wish you could hear him with me ; and I have 
a distinct recollection of having wished, when I heard him, 
that you and Emm could have heard him, too — so greatly 
does any pleasure depend upon its being shared with others 
who are near and dear to us ! 

[From L. S. to A. H. S.] 

Macon, July 8, i860. 
Dear Brother — I wrote you a letter this morning, and 
mailed it on my way to church. Since then, I have re- 




'^•W<i-it^f^, V- 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 22$ 

ccived yours of the 6th instant, saying- that you were feel- 
ing much better, and that you had had a httle rain and a 
great deal of cooling in the air. I am truly glad to hear it. 
So my notions about the rains, as expressed to you this 
morning, turn out to be correct. I think you have got still 

more rain by this time 

And now, a word as to Dr. Stiles' sermon to-day: His 
subject was the "Gospel as an instrument of education — 
the sole instrument of educating men out of their great ab- 
errations, and leading them back to their first great estate 
of their likeness to God." It was a grand discourse. His 
soul seemed to be all on fire with his great theme, and to 
be throwing off, not scintillations nor corruscations, but 
masses of sheet-flame. After such a general account, it is. 
perilous to give specimens ; but I will try a few, begging 
you to imagine-what infinite force was added to them by 
powerful language, which I do not remember, and still 
more by the noble and inspired aspect of the orator. He 
pointed out some of those great aberrations. One of them 
was a constant proneness in man to exalt the things of Time 
above the things of Eternity — to ignore Eternity and make 
Time all in all. The cry of his fallen nature is. What shall 
I eat, what shall I drink, and wherewithal shall I be 
clothed? He asked what a ^;r«/ aberration this was! The 
smallest imaginable fraction of the first breath of Methuse- 
lah bore a larger proportion to the rest of Methuselah's 
life than Time bears to Eternity. Time is but the egg-shell 
prison of the bird : he is formed and hatched there, but be- 
fore you can have the bit'd in the glory of his creation, he 
vawsX peck out, and soar, and sing, and flock in the forests, 
and through the grand empyrean. Man has his origin in 
Time, but before he achieves his true glory, or even enters 
upon his real existence, he must burst through these cere- 
ments of Time, which restrain the heaving of his immortal 
nature, and fly to his great possession at the throne of God, 
where he shall be a joint-heir with the Son of God. An- 
other of these great aberrations was man's proneness to set 
himself up as independent of God. What stupendous 
folly! What alarming insanity ! Man, without God, is a 
swift chariot without a reinsman — a storm-tossed ship with- 
out a rudder — an affrighted stag, plunging through the 
forest, without an eye I 
22* 



226 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

These are a few, out of a large number, of his striking 
and glowing illustrations. To feel the force and beauty oi 
these as I did, you would not only have to imagine the lan- 
guage and action with which they were delivered, but also 
the preceding parts which had prepared the audience for 
the full effect of them. In my judgment, he is the prince 
of preachers. I greatly wonder that his fame is not much 
greater than it is 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Macon, July lo, i860. 

Dear Brother — I have just returned 

from a ride out into the country to a beautiful pond, where 
I took a swim. I went to the same place and took a bath 
on the night of the 5th instant. Our landlord sends such 
of us as wish to go in his carriage. The pond is at a place 
of his about a mile out of town. It is fed by springs, and 
is very clear. There never was a more beautiful place for 
swimming. Judge Lumpkin went out the first night, and 
went into the water, but didn't swim, for he don't know 
how. The company had some sport out of my efforts to 
teach him. He went into the frolic with the spirit of a 
boy 

[ From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 

Macon, July 12, i860. 

Dear Brother — I take a few moments, before going to 
the court-house, to drop you a line. Yesterday, we had no 
court, but attended the commencement. I have no remarks 
to make, except that it was a poor affair, with the excep- 
tion of the commencement oration by Dr. Lipscomb,* of 
Alabama. That was a very entertaining address; it was 
highly poetical, in thought, in parts of it. It was not writ- 
ten. I will give you a specimen, which, I think, has the 
true ring of beauty and poetry: he called the Gulf-stream 
"The Wandering Summer of the Sea." I never heard the 
idea before; nor has Judge Nisbet, or Lumpkin, or any- 
body else whom I have heard speak of it 

* Dr. Lipscomb was afterwards Chancellor of the University of Georgia. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 22/ 

[ From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Macon, July 13, i860. 

Dear Brother — I learn to-day, through 

Charley and Judge Lumpkin, that Ben Hill says that he has 
been consulted by the Bell and Everett men of the North 
to get his opinion whether a combination between them and 
the Douglas men at the North would hurt them at the 
South, and that he has answered them to make the com- 
bination. Ben talks against the seceders. The three par- 
ties — Douglas, Breckinridge and Bell men — are now sta- 
tioned for a triangular fight, without any certainty, on the 
part of either, as to which of the other two will prove his 
real antagonist in the end, and with a rational disposition, 
therefore, on the part of each, to weaken that one which, 
for the time, gives most promise of final strength. It is a 
category very promising of combinations and bargains, and 
nobody can tell Avhat may yet be effected by trading. The 
temptation and facility for trading is likely to produce it. 

Charley-'' says he heard Judge Lumpkin break loose, the 
other night, upon the subject of my resignation. He said 
he had not a word to say in opposition to it, and had not 
tried to dissuade me from it, because my reasons for it were 
good ; but he would say that there was no man in Georgia 
who could fill my place. He said he meant just what he 
said — that my equal in the position could not be found in 
Georgia ; that he would rather have me as an associate on 
the bench than any man he had ever had ; that I had an 
absolute and undeviating purpose to administer the law in- 
dependently of all personal considerations ; and that, from 
his experience, it was no easy matter to find such a man. 
He went on to say how great my ability was, etc. I write 
you this because I feel some gratification at it, and think 
you may feel some also. It did not surprise me to hear 
that he expressed such sentiments ; for I had thought be- 
fore that he entertained them, but was surprised to hear 
that he had said, in so public a manner, things which would 
be distasteful and disagreeable to a good many people of 
ambition and influence. He and I held court to-day with- 
out Judge Lyon, who has gone home while cases in which 
he has been of counsel are up. In our consultation, this even- 

* Hon. Charles W. DuBose, then Clerk of the Supreme Court of Georgia. 



22S BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

ing, we had no trouble at all, and I do not think either one 
of us yielded a conviction he had. I am sure I did not, 
and I don't think he did. He told me the other day that 
he agreed with an opinion I had expressed, to the effect 
that judges who interchange views on a question, and are 
all animated with a single desire to arrive at the truth, can 
seldom differ in the end 

[From L. S. to A. H. S.] 

Macon, July 15, i860. 

Dear Brother — This is Sunday evening. I have had no 
letter from you to-day. Your letter of the 12th, which I 
got yesterday, telling me of the sickness of "the Parson,"* 
made me anxious to get another to-day that I might hear 
how he had got. Poor old Parson ! I do hope he is well 
again. By the way, however, if he should be well, don't 
let him know that I said "poor old Parson." He would 
possibly like that quite as little as he did Jesse Woodall's 
recollection of having gone to school to him. 

I had a good laugh at Judge Lumpkin last night at the 
supper-table. His wife and son, Miller, arrived here yes- 
terday morning before breakfast, very unexpectedly to him ; 
so when he was about to deliver an opinion in a long case, 
yesterday morning, he prefaced it with an apology for the 
desultory manner in which he expected to do it — saying 
that while he was engaged in preparing the opinion that 
morning, circumstances beyond his control had broke in upon 
him. This manner of alluding to his wife's arrival created 
quite a merriment among those who knew of her arrival, 
for the old fellow said it with great humor. So, last night 
I told Mrs. Lumpkin, who sat right opposite to me at the 
supper-table, that she ought to haul the Judge "over the 
coals." She, of course, wanted to know why, and I told 
her because the Judge had called her "a circumstance." The 
Judge's reply to me was, "Ain't you ashamed to report me 
so? I said nothing about a circumstance ; I said circuin- 

* Mr. O'Neal, a most estimable gentleman, who has long been one of 
Mr. A. H. Stephens' household. The title of "Parson" was given him 
from his general probity of character, by the boys about town, when he 
was Ordinary of the county. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 229 

stances.'" "So you did," said I; "but you said circum- 
stances had broken in upon you, and as I knew nothing had 
broken in upon you, except your wife and son, I took Mrs. 
Lumpkin to be one circumstance and Miller another." 
With a fine affectation of annoyance, he said: "Ain't 
you ashamed to do me so?" and the whole of our end of 
the table took a hearty laugh at this transpiration, in his 
wife's presence, of the manner in which her name had been 
handled behind her back. Mrs. Lumpkin said she thought 
my inference was a sound one, and indeed she didn't see 
how there could be any escape from it. Before this, the 
Judge, affecting the air of a man who was caught and had 
resigned himself to martyrdom, said to me, " Lll tell you 
now, she'll believe anything you tell her, for she has taken 
up a notion that you have got one of the honestest faces she 
ever saw. " His quisical and complaining manner of saying 
she would believe anything I might tell her raised another 
roar. I then went on to tell Mrs. Lumpkin that I had not 
told her the worst, for he said "circumstances beyond Ids 
control" in a manner that indicated that he was well-nigh a 
mined juan, and that he would have controlled them if he 
could. "But," said I, "he didn't fool anybody at all, for 
through all his assumed air of martyrdom and ruin, his 
secret delight was plainly apparent to all, and the way every- 
body read the story was, that he was so tickled at the pleas- 
ant surprise he had had, he couldn't help telling right out 
in the court-house that his wife had come to see him — 
his joy had made him incontinent." This pleased her 
very evidently, and pleased him also, and was regarded by 
the company as a most just analysis and pleasant hit, 
I have not told you all that was said, but I have given 
you the thread on which you can string other such things 
as you may imagine to have been appropriate to the occa- 
sion. On the whole, it was a very pleasant supper-table 
passage, and a little play in which I suspect that the lady 
figured very much to her liking and to her husband's gratifi- 
cation. By the way, the reason of her coming here was 
the news she had got that the Judge was sick. He was quite 
unwell, a few days ago, but his wife found him quite well 
on her arrival. And now I will say that I have been 
"broken in " upon by two terrible bores since I commenced 
writing this letter. Before I had finished the first page, 



230 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

, of , came in and sat and talked for three 



solid hours. He sat until the supper-gong was sounded. 

Then, immediately after supper, in popped , and he 

sat until eleven o'clock. I gaped, and yawned, and told 
him I had some letters to write, but all to no effect. When 
he continued to sit after such hints, I concluded that he 
certainly meditated ^ foray upon me in some form or other, 
and I was at last quite as much surprised as relieved when 
he took his hat and bade me good night without asking me 
for anything. My solution of it now is, that his heart 
failed him for the time. I shall look out for him hi the 
inonii)ig. The reporter's place will be vacant at the end of 
this term by the resignation of Martin, and I have a suspi- 
cion that wants to put in. That was 's busi- 
ness. is also an applicant, and , of and 

of and , of . As I am to retire my- 
self at so early a day, I shall not take much interest in the 
appointment of Martin's successor. The appointment is 
made, as you know, by the judges. The temperature here 
is pleasant, but no prospect of rain. What is to become 
of the country? Good-night. I intended to write you a 
long letter this evening. 

Most affectionately, 

•Linton Stephens. 

[From L. S. to -A. PI. S. ] 

Macon, July 21, i860. 

Dear Brother — What does Mr. 

Toombs say about politics, or does he refrain from the topic 
in your presence? What is the reason for your opinion 
that no combination can be effected between the Douglas 
and Bell men? You expressed such an opinion in one of 
your letters to me the other day. What do you think are 
the probable combinations, or antagonisms and results? 
It will be some weeks before I can see you, and I should 
like to know your general opinion of the field, and of the 
result of the battle. Mr. Thomas writes me that he is afraid 
he and I may differ, and then tells me that he favors a com- 
bination with the Bell men. He says Cosby is really for 
Douglas, but says he is going to vote for Breckinridge. I 
only mention that as a curious thing. Yesterday, I saw a 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 23 1 

letter from Stewart, of our county, to Charley, saying that 
the Hancock people were in a stir and in a curious condi- 
tion of politics. He does not go into particulars, nor does 
he state anything about it, but only drops remarks, from 
which I can discover the tendency of things. One thing 
is, he wonders if he shall at last vote for Douglas after swear- 
ing he never would. He then adds that Bill Hunt tells him 
it is as easy to swear in as it is to swear out. Then again 
he adds that Bill Hunt, however, is the ojdy old-fashioned 
Democrat who talks right about it; and then adds that 
there is great swearing among them — some of the Douglas 
men swearing that they will never vote for Bell, and some 
of the Bell men swearing they will never vote for Douglas. 
From all this, I infer that the proposition for a combination 
is urged by some of each — the Douglas and the Bell men — 
but strenuously resisted by others of each party. Was it 
this sort of feeling which you foresaw as an obstacle in the 
way of a combination ? Is this obstacle greater than the 
same sort of obstacle which stood in the way of the union 
of Whigs and Democrats in the formation of the Constitu- 
tional Union party, and in the formation of the Anti-Know- 
Nothing party? I don't see that the obstacle is greater 
now than the same obstacle was in each of those cases ; nor 
indeed is it so great, for the disintegrations which have oc- 
curred in party organizations within a few years have tended 
to render the process of disintegration familiar to our peo- 
ple, and, therefore, less difficult. But while disintegration 
may be more easy, it may yet be true that the reformation 
of disjointed parts may not be so. In other words, that 
our general progress has been towards anarchy, and away 
from integrity and union. But enough of all this, too. 
What now shall I write? I am unwilling to quit; and yet, 
I have nothing more to say 

[ From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Macon, July 23, i860. 

Dear Brother — I have done the deed ! I mean I have 
sent my resignation to the Governor, to take effect, not at 
the end, but at the beginning of the Atlanta term. When 
I say sent, I mean I have it ready to send, and shall have 
it mailed to-morrow morning along with this. The Gov- 



232 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

ernor, if he should be at home, will have it in his hands 
before you get this notice of it. I feel better. The place 
has worn me out. I should like it if I could be sole judge, 
but I do not like a divided sceptre. I do not think I have 
the slightest relish for power for its own sake, but I like 
what power I may have to be undivided, in order that its 
exercise may be guided by system and symmetry, and not 
be a "mighty maze without a plan." I feel a great relief 
in knowing that the word which is to cut me loose from 
"this body of death" has already been spoken. Charley 
says tell you that he is "in particular hot water." He 

says he will be terribly lonesome 

Affectionately, Linton Stephens. 

At the meeting of the General Assembly, in November, 
1859, ^^ Executive appointment of Judge Stephens to the 
Supreme Bench was gracefully indorsed. He was elected, 
without opposition, for the unexpired term. The compli- 
ment therein implied loses nothing of its significance, or 
gracefulness, when it is remembered how hotly some of the 
preceding and succeeding canvasses, for the like office, 
have been conducted. Failing health induced him, how- 
ever, to resign his commission, as has been seen, in July, 
i860. The regret felt and expressed at the event was 
very general and very sincere, as was the necessity of it 
deplored ; nor was there any one more earnest and em- 
phatic in giving utterance to that feeling of regret than 
the late Chief Justice, Joseph Henry Lumpkin. 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, September 8, i860. 

Dear Brother — But let me 

turn to a lighter theme ; the other one is a painful one to 
me. I want to poke a little fun at you about a small point 
in your speech. There would be no fun in it if it were 
not for your great character for exact accuracy in your 
statements and allusions. Now, you may open your eyes, 
for I am going to peck a flaw in a scriptural allusion which 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 233 

you made. You spoke of tJlosc who Jicld StcpJicii s clothes 
while he was stoned to death. Now, I make a point on 
every one of three words which I have underscored — those, 
held and StepJicii s. I shall take them up in their reverse 
order. In the first place, then, so far as the record shows, 
(Acts 7th chapter and 5Sth verse) there was nothing done 
to Stephen's clothes; the account is that the witnesses did 
something with their clothes — not Stephen's. In the next 
place, what they did was not to Jiold them, but to lay them 
at the feet of somebody. In the third and last place, the 
clothes were guarded (not held) by one person only, and 
not by several, as is implied in your word "those." The 
clothes-minder was no less a personage than Paul. Now, I 
want you to review the history, and either own up, or tell 
me why you won't. I should like for you to read this scrip- 
tural criticism of mine to "the Parson," and write me what 
he says about it 

After quitting the bench. Judge Stephens entered with 
unwonted zeal into the Presidential canvass of i860. His 
speeches in advocacy of the election of the Douglas-John- 
son ticket were the ablest he ever delivered on the hust- 
ings. No speeches of the campaign were better reasoned 
from his stand-point, and they were uttered with all the 
nervous eloquence despair only can inspire. 

On the 15th of October, he wrote his friend Johnston: 

My Dear Dick — And now, 

one word in relation to politics, in which I feel more in- 
terest than in anything else at this time — not the interest 
of an office-seeker, for I desire no office in the world, ^ut 
the interest of a citizen who feels that he lives under the 
freest and best government on earth, and is utterly opposed 
to its destruction without cause. I am not fighting now to 
defeat Lincoln's election. To live under his administration 
will be a great calamity, and to avert that calamity is a suf- 
ficent aim to inspire the efforts of any man who loves his 
country. But I am afraid that we shall be reduced to the 
alternative of living under his administration, or resisting 
it by force of arms. The leaders arc undoubtedly respon- 

23* 



234 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

sible for the result. Posterity will hold them so. I repeat, 
I am not fighting to defeat Lincoln ; I am afraid that is im- 
possible; but I fight now to prevent the "precipitation " of 
the revolution which is intended to follow his election. 

Nothing can defeat it 

but the defeat of Lincoln, (which is almost hopeless) or a 
clear break down of the Breckinridge cause in the South. 
It is of the last importance that the popular vote of the 
South, and especially the majority vote of Georgia, should 
be given against Breckinridge. If so, they may be dis- 
couraged from making the attempt. I am now working 
to that end. This is all so, but a great number of people 
cannot be made to believe it. They are as incredulous as 
those were who laughed at Noah when he preached the 
flood. I trust that a kind Providence may avert from their 
incredulity the like terrible retribution, which seems to 
me to be almost its necessary result. What a causeless 
catastrophe it will be! and how terrible its results! May 
the God of our great fathers preserve their degenerate sons 
in spite of themselves. 

Most truly yours, 

Linton Stephens. 



[From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 

Sparta, October i6, i860. 

Dear Brother — Yesterday, I got your letter of the day 
before, and the day before, I got the one written just on 
your return home. Both bore date of the 14th, but the 
first was, of course, w-ritten on the 13th. I will meet Mr. 
Douglas at Chattanooga if nothing unforeseen shall prevent. 
I trust that your apprehensions as to the treatment he may 
receive in Georgia may prove groundless. Mr. Toombs' 
remark about what will be done in Columbus, in case he re- 
peats his Norfolk sentiments, looks ominous. I am sorry 
that the time for him to be in Columbus is not longer be- 
fore the election ; for any ill-usage he may receive will only 
do him good in the election if the news could have time for 
circulation among the people. We arc on the verge of a 
precipice. May God preserve us ! 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 235 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Jackson, Tenn., Sunday, October 21, i860. 

Dear Brother — You may be surprised to learn that I 
am in Tennessee, but you have possibly heard ah'eady that 
I had gone to IlHnois. I got Judge Wright and Bob Sims 
both to fill my place in Murray, and started from Atlanta 
to Centralia last Friday morning. It had rained nearly all 
the night before, and continued to rain until we got to 
Chattanooga. Within a half mile of the depot, at Chatta- 
nooga, our engine ran off the track. We would have lost 
the connection but for the Memphis train waiting for us. 
They had, however, already waited so long that they could 
not wait for us to get supper; and as I was quite hungry, 
and didn't relish the prospect of riding all night without 
eating, and as I furthermore didn't like to pass through the 
region o( land-slides and impending rocks in such a wet and 
dark time, I staid all night in Chattanooga. Yesterday 
morning, I started again and got to the "Grand Junction" 
last night about 10 o'clock. There I had to stay all night 
for a train. This morning, the train came and I took it at 
8 o'clock, and arrived here about ii. This place is forty- 
eight miles from the Grand Junction. It is now about 3^ 
o'clock in the afternoon. I am to leave here at 9:45 to- 
night, and, with good luck, shall reach Centralia at 9)^ in 
the morning, in time for the grand gathering there to-mor- 
row. You will readily conjecture that my present deten- 
tion at this place is owing to its being Sunday. You will 
readily imagine that it has been a weary, heavy day to me. 
I am an utter stranger here, in face and in name. The 
landlord at the Junction evidently knew me from reputa- 
tion, but this one does not. I am all alone here ; but I am 
wearing through the day better than you would imagine. 

I think Douglas is strong in this part of Tennessee, but 
I have no doubt but that Bell will carry the State. Doug- 
las is to speak at this place on Tuesday. 

And now for the reason of this unexpected trip on my 
part: When I got to Atlanta, Dr. Hambleton showed me 
a dispatch, which he had just got from Mr. Douglas, in- 
quiring wheji yoH zvoiild meet Jam in Illinois, and Hambleton. 
told me that it was published in the papers that you were 
goins to Illinois. Hambleton was afraid that the "when" 



^ 



236 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

in Douglas' dispatch implied that he expected you with cer- 
tainty at soTiictiinc, and he might wait for you, and so give up 
his Georgia appointments. The truth is, he seemed very 
uneasy, lest Douglas might not go to Georgia at all, unless 
you or I should meet him, as Hambleton had promised him 
one of us would do. He did not acknowledge to me in 
terms that he had made such a promise, but I became per- 
fectly satisfied that he made some such promise. The only 
doubt I have is as to what the exact promise was. / t/iink 
it was that jot( would meet Mr. Douglas; but it is possible 
that it was in the alternative — you or I. At all events, he 
begged me to come and I came. When I got to Atlanta, 
I found that Ben Hill had spoken to a very large crowd 
there the night before, and had got resolutions passed for a 
fusion of all parties in Georgia, so as to run a ticket which 
should be pledged to neither of the candidates, but pledged 
only to vote for that one who would have the best chance 
to beat Lincoln when the vote should be cast. The Doug- 
las men and Bell men were all for it, and a number of the 
Breckinridge men also. I am inclined to think that if it is 
well managed, it may be a strong, Avise and successful move- 
ment. I am afraid that it may be distasteful to Douglas 
men in some parts of the State, because it is inaugurated 
by Bell men ; but I hope not. I find that there is great 
apprehension in the public mind from the prospect of Lin- 
coln's election. The almost universal expectation seems to 
be that Carolina will secede; that the General Government 
will try to force her back, and that the whole South will 
make common cause with her. I say this seems to be the 
expectation, and it also seems to be the sentiment, of the 
people — Douglas men, Bell men and all. I really look upon 
that as the probable result. I do not know whether I shall 
speak to-morrow or not. I certainly shall not do so unless 
I am satisfied that Mr. Douglas really desires it. I feel, 
however, that, if circumstances should be favorable, I could 
give the Illinois men a talk w^hich may do them good. My 
sheet is out. I have no envelope. Good-bye. You will 
not hear from me again until you see me in Atlanta. May 
God preserve us all ! 



\ 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 237 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, November 28, i860. 

Dear Brother — I have often thought 

it was a pity you did not — or rather, that you and I did 
not — at once close in with Mr. Toombs' proposition to join 
us in an address, recommending that neither any iviincdiate 
secession man nor any non-resistance man be sent to the 
convention. That would have been a strong card for effect 
upon the hot-headed States, Is it too late yet? .... 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, Sunday, December 2, i860. 

Dear Brother — One reason why my letters to you, since 
you left here, have been so few and tardy is this : I sleep so 
late in the morning that the mail-hour passes by before I 
get my breakfast and finish my smoking thereafter. ' ' Well, " 
you may say, "admit all this to be so, and yet, why don't 
you get up .sooner, (which would be the best,) or write on 
the preceding day for the mail of the next day?" My an- 
swer shall be an honest one, whether it is satisfactory or 
not. It shall at least have that virtue which Mr. Thomas 
proudly claimed for his report of his premium wheat, when 
he reported that he made exactly two and a half bushels to 
the acre, and concluded with the declaration that it was as 
honest a report as ever was made. First, then, as to the 
alternative of writing on the preceding day for the next 
day's mail, (as I am now doing) : I have not adopted that 
plan, because it is not the best, and have each day concluded 
that, on the next day, I would adopt the best by getting up 
soon enough to write before the closing of the mail ; and 
the reason why I have each morning failed to carry out the 
good resolution of the preceding day has been that, from 
playing whist sometimes, and at others from a mere dread 
of going to bed, I have sat up too late to be in a condition 
to rise early. This is just the truth of the matter; but this 
is not the whole truth, nor even the main part of it; for, 
after all, the great reason of my failure to write has been a 
general indisposition to write, or to do anything else. I 
have been sunk into an inglorious gloom and idleness, which 
found no other relief so congenial as a game of cards — whist 



238 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

with the children, or even the poor game of solitaire. I 
have not written one Hne of my judicial opinions. I shall 
not begin until next week, and then I will begin, if nothing 
unforeseen shall prevent, and continue without remission until 
the work is ended. I mean to do it rapidly, yet hope to do 
it well ; and the ground for expecting to do it well, and yet 
rapidly, is that I intend to make it brief . It is easier for 
me to condense than it was when I first wrote opinions. 
Some of my first opinions would be better if they were 
shorter; and yet, I do not think that prolixity is a leading, 
fault in them. Comparatively, at least, brevity is their pre- 
vailing excellence ; but that brevity cost me a great deal of 
trouble and time. Some of my shortest opinions could have 
been quicker written if they had been longer;''^ but now, I 
can make short opinions with more ease, and, indeed, with 

greater ease I have just received 

your letter of yesterday. I still do not agree with you as 
to the result in this State. But ought not the State to be 
canvassed? I feel so, and think so. I think it would have 
been a good lick if you had promptly accepted and acted 
on Mr. Toombs' suggestion to join him in an address to 
the people. It does seem to me it would have been a great 
blow for the right direction of sentiment in Georgia and the 
whole South. Is it too late noiv? Think of it. Let me 
say to you that I think you are too much disposed to des- 
pair. The feeling is the surest means of fulfilling its omen. 
Your despair will be a cause of defeat — not an indication of 
the coming inevitable defeat. I don't believe the dema- 
gogues yet have full possession of the people. On the 
contrary, never was the confidence of the people in you so 
strong and so pronounced as it is now. Don't disappoint 
them. You can save the country. I do firmly believe it. 
I see that Fitzpatrick is opposed to separate State action by 

Alabama I see that Mr. Yancey 

is reported to have expressed himself at Columbus in favor 
of a conference among the Southern States. Write to 
Ewing and all that class, (substantially, though, of course, 
not literally) that he is a fool, (as he is) and that the only 

••■■■ It is related of Sir Walter Scott that, when his " Life of Napoleon 
Bonaparte " appeared, some friend asked him why he did not make it 
shorter ? Scott's reply was : " I didii't have time,'''' 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 239 

possible mode of accomplishing his darling object — the pres- 
ervation of the Union — is by giving the more fiery Southern 
States such a programme as they will accept, and that it 
is the height of folly for Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky 
to drive the others to their own chosen course from very 
despair of getting any co-operation which they can accept. 
If the more conservative States will step one pace forward, 
I do not doubt but the more extreme States will fall one 
step backward. These extreme States want co-operation — 
there is no mistake about it. They feel the need of it, and 
they are willing to do something to get it. I have no doubt 
that secession is the only remedy they will accept, but I 
also believe that they can be induced to accept it as an idti- 
inatinn, instead of a remedy to be applied at once, as they 
desire to apply it. I have more distrust of bringing Ken- 
tucky and Tennessee up to the proper mark than of draw- 
ing the others back to the proper mark. It occurs to me, 
with great force, that there is the point to strike the blow. 
You are the man, and the only man, who can do it success- 
fully. The very fact that you have averted one immediate 
pressing danger causes the Union-loving States to regard 
you as their champion, and will make them believe what you 
may tell them. You may think that personal jealousies 
will interfere and prevent. These would arise at a later 
period beyond all doubt; but now their cry is, " Help me, 
Cassius, or I sink! " They will not reject your help. . . 
I think that Providence has a great work for you to do ; 
don't be discouraged by the demagogues. " He makes the 
wrath of man to praise him." There have been dema- 
gogues, and bad men, and selfish men, conspicuous in every 
great struggle for liberty and the right, and many such have 
been canonized in English history as heroes and patriots. 
They never would have brought good to their country, as 
they did do, if God had not made the "wrath of man to 
praise Him." Some of the most brilliant achievements on 
record have been wrought by the wicked in the hands of 
an overruling Providence 

[Fioni L. S. to A. II. S. ] 

Sparta, December 29, 1864. 

Dear Brother — Yesterday I .saw 

the Heralds account of the proceedings which were the 



240 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

foundation for Toombs' telegram, I have no remark to add 
to what I said on the subject yesterday, before seeing the 

HcraUf s account I am 

more impressed than ever with the truth of what I said in 
my letter to you yesterday, that the clamor for new consti- 
tutional guarantees is an artifice of men who are resolved 
to defeat all settlement, and is used only by them, and those 
who are influenced by an over-anxiety to conciliate them. 
Have you seen Mr. Yancey's letter, in which he says we 
don't need new constitutional guarantees — that the Constitu- 
tion, as it is, is good enough, and that all we need is an obe- 
dience to it on the part of the North ? I saw such a letter 
from him yesterday in the Columbus Times. That is the 
truth of the case, well stated. He makes one use of it, 
and we another. But his statement of the case can be and 
ought to be effectually used to silence the artful and de- 
ceptive clamor which his co-laborers are making for new 
constitutional guarantees 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, December 31, i860. 

Dear Brother — The secessionists 

here have now got out Edge Bird in place of Mr. Harley, 
who resigned. To-morrow, Lewis is to speak here by way 
of getting up a sensation in favor of his ticket. I shall re- 
ply to him. South Carolina is his capital. He can't make 
anything out of the position I shall take on the subject. 
His object is to question Harris, Turner, and myself, before 
the people on that subject particularly. He wants to know 
what course we think Georgia ought to take in the event 
the Federal Government should attempt to coerce South 
Carolina back into the Union. I shall tell him that South 
Carolina having taken her own course for herself, without 
any consultation with us, we are under no obligation to het 
to defend her against the consequences of it ; that the sole 
consideration of Georgia should be her own safety and 
honor ; that when such an attempt may be made, the gov- 
ernment will be at an end; for it is impossible that our 
system can be worked by force against so large a portion 
of the people as is represented by a whole State of the 
Confederacy. The application of force to stick a case would 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 24 1 

end the whole system, and Georgia shoidd then look for 
new safe-guards, and ought to look where she may be most 
likely to find them, under the circumstances as they may 
exist; while she would be under no obligations to South 
Carolina, she yet should treat her as she would treat all the 
rest of the sound States, North and South, and her course 
towards them all should be to propose to them to exclude 
the unsound ones, and then go right on under the old Con- 
stitution and the old flag, and with the Union purged and 
}:)urified. If South Carolina would accede to that proposi- 
tion, then we ought to make her cause our own ; but if she 
should refuse, then we ought to leave her to work out her 
own destiny, while we should go on with such of the other 
States as would accede to our plan. In other words, we 
ought to make Carolina's cause our own, if she would join 
us in what we miw'ht consider the ri^ht course; otherwise, 
leave her alone. Let me know what you think of this. In 
great haste. 

Yours, most affectionately, 

Linton Stephens. 

Judge Stephens was •chosen as a delegate to the State 
Convention of 1861, which passed the Ordinance of Seces- 
sion. It was done on the 19th of January of that year. 
He earnestly opposed the movement in favor of immediate 
secession for then existing causes ; but, after the ordinance 
was passed, he drew- up the following preamble and resolu- 
tion, which were presented by Judge Nisbet, and passed 
the convention by an overwhelming majority : 

"Whereas, The lack of unanimity in the action of this 
convention, in the passage of the Ordinance of Secession, 
indicates a difference of opinion amongst the members of 
the convention — not so much as to the rights which Geor- 
gia claims, or the wrongs of which she complains, as to the 
remedy and its application before a resort to other means 
of redress; 

"And Whereas, It is desirable to give expression to 
that intention, which really exists among all the members 
of this convention, to sustain the State in the course of ac- 
24* 



242 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

tion which she has pronounced to be proper for the occa- 
sion : therefore — 

*' Resolved, That all members of this convention, includ- 
ing those who voted against the said ordinance, as well as 
those who voted for it, will sign the same as a pledge of the 
unanimous determination of this convention to sustain and 
defend the State, in this her chosen remedy, with all its re- 
sponsibilities and consequences, without regard to individual 
approval or disapproval of its adoption." 

The war came. 

Judge Stephens enlisted in the military service of the 
Confederate States in June, 1861. 

On the organization of the Fifteenth Regiment of Georgia 
Volunteers, he was elected lieutenant-colonel. His friend, 
the late Thomas W. Thomas, then judge of the Superior 
Courts of the Northern Circuit — recognizing, as he said, the 
force of the maxim, "' Inter arvia, leges sileiif'' — doffed the 
ermine to take command of the regiment : it was composed 
of companies raised exclusively in that judicial circuit, and 
the muster-roll was illustrated with the flower — "the rose 
and expectancy" — of that section. Alas! how many of 
them heard their last reveille on the consecrated soil of 
Virginia ! 

Ill-health enforced the resignations of both Thomas and 
Stephens in the course of a few months: the former came 
home, as it proved, to die. 

[From A. II. S. to L. S. ] 

Crawfordville, June 29, 1861. 

Dear Brother — I was truly 

sorry to perceive from your two last letters, and particularly 
the one I got to-night, that you were suffering such a de- 
pression of spirits. I know what low spirits are — what in- 
tense and profound melancholy is — and have sympathized 
with those who feel them. Last week, I had a sad time my- 
self in looking over and reading old letters that I was lay- 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 243 

ing away and arranging; some of them brought tears to my 
eyes, and yet I can imagine that that almost sacred pile 
you opened must have induced much more intense feeling 
in your heart. These emotions, though painful, may do 
good; their tendency by nature is to chasten and improve 
the heart when their legitimate results follow. I always 
endeavor to make them produce such a result with mc. 
The mysteries of life and existence with its multitudes of 
ills and sorrows often perplex and overwhelm me! What 
you say of your belief in causation is not far different from 
my own convictions : the creed with me, when run out, leads 
to this settled rule of action — patiently to bear all that befalls 
me after doing my own duty in all things as far as I can, 
believing and feeling assured that it is all right and all for 
the best, myself included as an atom of the great universal ex- 
istence. This is my feeling when, upon reflection, I 
feel satisfied that I have done my duty as far as I 
knew; and if I discover, as is often the case, that by 
omission or commission some error has been perpetrated, 
then I feel like crying out, "God be merciful to me a sin- 
ner!" This is my only stay, prop and hope! The great 
mysteries that involve all things around us, and particularly 
the frailties as well as sufferings of this life, of good and 
evil, I cannot understand and shrink from inquiring into. 
Then life's active scenes and duties call my attention ; and 
in these, I have long since found, consist all the happiness 
it is possible for me to attain. I have felt intensely for you 
in your position, in relation to entering the military service. 
I felt too much to talk to you freely about it, for fear that 
I might influence you improperly. Your situation was so 
peculiar every way, I could not myself judge for you — and 
now only rely upon the principle of my creed, that all is 
and will be right, let results be as they may, without mur- 
muring or upbraiding that all-controlling Divinity that guides 
our fortunes. I trust I shall, with patience, fortitude and 
resignation, bear whatever may come, howsoever painful — 
hoping all the time that the result may be fortunate, propi- 
tious and agreeable. Of one thing I feel confident : where 
duty leads, we may never fear to tread. 

I used to be melancholy. I am not so now. l^erhaps it 
is because I am in better health: the health of the body 
has a great deal to do with the state of the mind. You are 



244 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

now suffering from dyspepsia; the coldness in the side is 
caused by that. I doubt not you will recover from it. 

I have thought of nights on my bed 

how could I sleep if I knew you were on the cold ground in 
camp, with nothing but a blanket under you and a tent- 
cloth to shut out the rain ! This is exceedingly painful to 
me, and yet, I do trust in the providence of God, that if 
you go, and I now expect you will, it may all prove to be 
beneficial, instead of injurious, to you. It has been so with 
others. Mr. Crittenden once told me that, in the war of 
i8i2, he slept often without any tent — on the ground in 
the rain — and slept soundly and healthily with the rain-wa- 
ter running under him; but it seems to me I should die if 
I knew that you were in such condition ! May God protect 

you wherever you go, or whatever you do ! 

Affectionately, Alexander H. Stephens. 

To his friend, Colonel A. J. Lane, he writes: 

Camp, Near Fairfax C. H., September, 1861. 

My Dear Jack — Our regiment has suf- 
fered greatly from sickness, and our Hancock companies, 
while faring better than any others, have not escaped. 

Three of them have died As to the 

future movements of our army, nobody knows anything, 
except the generals in command. The brigadiers seem to 
be as much in the dark as any of the rest of us. I have a 
conjecture as to the object of moving our forces up to their 
present position at Fairfax ; and for the want of anything 
better, I will give it to you for what it is worth. 

The idea was probably to make gradual incroachments 
(as we have been doing) upon the lines of the enemy on 
this side of the river, and by at least getting possession of 
a number of points from which we could annoy them within 
their entrenchments, compel them to come out of their 
works and give us battle in order to rid themselves of the 
annoyance. This was probably the leading idea, with the 
superadded general intention to take advantage of any op- 
portunity which might offer of pursuing a different pro- 
gramme What 

I fear most is this naval expedition which has lately started 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 245 

out for some place unknown — the denouemefii of -which may- 
be known when you are reading- these Hnes. I do not mean 
to say that I apprehend from it anything more than a har- 
rassment of and pknidering- our coast; but I don't know 
what they will attempt, and it is useless to indulge in con- 
jectures on the subject, except so far as to be prepared to 
meet them according to our ability . , , 

At the reorganization of the regiment, in 1862, Judge 
Stephens was importuned to accept the colonelcy; but con- 
tinued ill-health, as well as regard for Major Mcintosh,* who 
desired the office, constrained him to decline. 

Judge Stephens opposed with his might the doctrine of 
conscription. He believed it to be hostile to the genius of 
our American institutions — false in theory and pernicious 
in practice; and, indeed, it would seem that the idea of 
forcing men to fight for their own liberty — and that, too, by 
means of a measure unauthorized in the fundamental com- 
pact of government — involves not merely a paradox, but an 
absurdity. The following letter sets forth some of the rea- 
sons of his opposition to it: 

[ Yxo\\\ L. S. to J. A. Stewart, Esq.] 

Sparta, December 28, 1862. 

My Dear Sir — I have always intended to send you my 
acknowledgments and thanks for your valued letter of the 
29th of November, but have been prevented from doing so 
by the pressure of other matters, and by necessary absence 
from home. 

I have never passed through any political struggle with- 
out bringing out of it a personal regard for those of my as- 
sociates in it whom I had found to be actuated by love oi 
country and genuine devotion to the principles of liberty 
and good government. The Douglas campaign left me just 
such an impression as to yourself; and hence, it is a source 

'^■' A gallant and accomplished officer, who fell at the head of his reg- 
iment, in the engagement at Garnett's farm, June 27, 1862, during the 
"Seven Days' Battles." 



246 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

of personal gratification to mc to find my subsequent polit- 
ical course receiving your approval. Our people do not appre- 
ciate the mischiefs of conscription. That it is a violation ot 
the Constitution is demonstrable in a few words. Nobody 
has answered, nor attempted to answer, the real argument, 
and nobody ever will. The conscriptionist, from the Pres- 
ident down, including our Supreme Courfand Ben Hill, all 
dodge the argument, because they can't answer it. No man 
can assign to the framers of the Constitution a rational pur- 
pose in the very remarkable g.uards which are thrown 
around the power "to provide for calling forth the militia," 
unless that "militia" means the annsd^can'ng pcop/c of the 
States, and not a mere organization which may itself be de- 
stroyed by the removal of the men who compose it. No 
man can save these framers from being regarded as mere 
babbling geese, except by construing these guards as cov- 
ering the men, and not a mere worthless organization — the 
kernel, and not the mere hull — the substance, and not the 
mere shadow. No man has ever suggested a possible rea- 
son for throwing these guards around the organization, and 
yet, leaving the men who may compose it without any 
guards at all against the power of Congress. Unless, then, 
the framers of our Constitution were a set of geese, they 
meant to confine the power of Congress "to provide for 
calling forth the arms-bearing or fighting men of the States " 
to some one of the three purposes, of executing the laws, 
suppressing insurrection, or repelling invasion, and to re- 
serve to the States the sole and exclusive appointment of 
officers for their men so " called forth. " Now, my com- 
plaint against the Conscript Act is, not that it has "called 
forth" our fighting men for an unconstitutional purpose — 
for the purpose is the constitutional one of repelling inva- 
sion — but that it has called them forth in a manner which 
has robbed the States of the appointment of the officers, 
and has robbed the soldiers of their right, under State laws, 
to elect their own officers. There can be no escape from 
this reasoning. But the unconstitutionality of conscription, 
palpable as it is, sinks into minor importance when com- 
pared with its monstrous impolicy. The effect and design 
of it are to decitizenize the whole army — to reduce them 
from the dignity of citizenship, and degrade them into mere 
machines of unquestioning obedience — instruments for the 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 247 

unquestioning execution of the designs and commands of 
their masters. These brave fellows may achieve independ- 
ence indeed, but if the war lasts long under the degrading 
influences of conscription, they will come out of it utterly 
unfit for liberty. I do not intend to enlarge on this view ; 
but it is a very alarming one when we consider the vast ex- 
tent of our armies, and the consequent magnitude of the 
degrading influence. The whole tendency of conscription 
is to make armies which are fit for despots, and to unmake 
citizens who are fit to exercise and preserve liberty. I know 
there is a difference of opinion in the army itself as to the 
best mode of appointing officers ; but those who object to 
elections take not only a wrong view, in my judgment, of 
the best mode to procure good officers, but they take a wo- 
fuUy )iarnnv view. The great question is, not the best 
mode of procuring good officers for a war, but the best 
mode of preserving men who shall be fit for peace. For 
myself, I have no sort of doubt that election is at once the 
best mode of securing the best officers and keeping them 
good — the best mode of preserving the gallantry and effect- 
iveness of the men, and the only mode of preserving in them 
the spirit of freemen and a fitness for their subsequent duties 
as citizens. This is a subject of the very highest import- 
ance ; and I repeat that our people have not risen to its due 
appreciation. Large and long wars are always destructive 
in their tendency to the spirit of liberty; and we shall need 
all possible care and precautions to come out of this one 
with enough of that spirit left to save us from being drifted 
into irrevocable despotism. Our people would not believe 
this if it were told to them, but it is true, nevertheless. It 
is founded on the teachings of history, and, what is more, 
on the nature of man. It seems to be a fatality of men and 
nations that they cannot see their own future, nor believe it 
when it is truly foretold to them. Mankind, in all ages and 
in all countries, have ever been just as those were who 
laughed at Noah preaching the flood, and as Hazael was 
when he said, "Is thy servant a dog that he should do this 
great thing?" and yet, he turned around and did the very 
thing. Our people did not believe there would be any war, 
but war came. They did not believe, if any war occurred, 
it could be a big or a long war; but it has already lasted 
nearly two years on a scale of appalling magnitude. They 



248 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

would not believe me if I were to tell them now that the}- 
have not yet reaped its bitterest fruits in the devastation, 
and blood, and tears which it has brought to us; and yet, 
I do not hesitate to declare, that by far the most of all its 
horrors is the dragon s teeth which it is sowing as seed for a 
future but early crop. 

But I must close. I have written you a very different 
letter from what I intended. I began with an intention to 
say that my judgment is decidedly against what is called 
"Reconstruction," and to give you my reasons for that 
opinion. I may yet do so on some leisure day. With good 
wishes for you personally, and for our unhappy countr)', I 
remain Yours, truly, 

Linton Stephens. 

[From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 

Sparta, Januar}' 14, 1S63. 

Dear Brother — • Dr. Burkman 

came home with me day before yesterday evening from 
Dawson's, where I found him, and staid until bed-time. 
He and I played piquet a little — I beat him. He told me 
that you beat him also. He said he was professor of the 
game and was getting beaten by all of his pupils. He com- 
plained that he couldn't get good cards. He had a good 
deal of talk about you, and, among other things, said it was 
difficult to teach you a game, because you insisted on being 
taught your own way — or rather, you undertook to learn 
without teaching. Cosby and Evans soon came up after 
the doctor got here, by invitation, which I gave them as 
the doctor and I were passing through town, and piquet 
was then dropped for whist, he remarking that he supposed 
he was about to play with professors of the game. Evans 
and Cosby both very modestly, and, in my opinion, very 
insincerely, disclaimed such pretensions As for myself, I 
.said nothing, but simply smiled at the modest lies which 
Cosby and Evans were telling. By the way, I have found 
out that there are a great many circumstances in which 
a fellow may avoid telling lies by simply remaining silent ; 
this is quite a discovery, as much as you may be disposed 
to laugh at it; or, at all events, it is an act but little under- 
stood. There is a class of matter-of-fact things which, 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 249 

when said, are generally expected to elicit a corresponding 
inatter-of-course answer, which answer, if given as expected, 
is, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, a lie. This con- 
ventionalism gives rise to a pretty extensive class of lies 
which the world has agreed to consider necessary and inno- 
cent. Now, I am satisfied that the world is mistaken as to 
the necessity, whether it is as to the innocence or not; for 
while a certain set-answer is expected on such occasions, 
yet, it is almost always considered as given, whether it is 
given in point of fact or not. There are very few persons 
who ever notice the answers which are actually given on 
such occasions. For instance : I have no idea that Dr. Burk- 
man discriminated between the response of Cosby and Evans 
on the one part, and my silence on the other; and I doubt 
not that, if he had occasion to report us, he would repre- 
sent us all as having entered the usual disclaimer to his 
compliments. None but a keen observer will ever notice 
that the expected answer is not given ; and with a keen ob- 
server yow. never get any credit for the lie w^hen it is told. 
So my conclusion is that such lies, so far from being neces- 
sary, are Jiever so, with proper management. I think you 
will scarcely read this without some disturbance of the 
muscles of your face ; but you may be assured, neverthe- 
less, that my object is to enforce a truth no less than to 
excite a smile. You don't know hozi) I secretly plumed my- 
self on my superiority over Evans and Cosby in avoiding 
that monstrous lie which they were entrapped into telling. 
The old doctor does not play a good game of whist. Piquet 
he plays well, so far as I had an opportunity to judge. He 
knows how to play to make the most tricks with a given 
hand ; but how far his skill goes in forming his hand by 
judicious discards, I could not tell by the little play I had 
with him. By the way, how do you speW piquet f I notice 
that Sir Walter Scott spelt it, as I have just done, without 
a c before the q ; but, until I saw his orthography, I never 
hesitated to put in the c. I have just read "St. Ronan's 
Well," in which frequent mention is made oi piquet. That 
was the game by which the false Earl of Etherington ruined 
poor Mowbray. The character which struck me most in 
St. Ronan's is Peregrine Touchmond, alias Scrogie-Scrogie, 
who was disinherited by his father because he refused to 
follow his father's whim of merging Scrogie in the more 
25* 



250 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

euphonious and aristocratic name of Mowbray-Scrogie, who 
wandered and grew rich; who lectured against innovations, 
and yet, turned every place he went to up-side down with 
improvements, and who was generally full of whims and 
full of sense. As I am fresh from the book, I will give you 
some of the points which you were trying to recall when 
you talked to me about the book not long ago. The name 
of the singular old hostess was Margaret Dods, and the 
name of the vehicle in which she made her remarkable visit 
to the town of Ivlarchthorn was a whisky. I have a criticism 
to make on this book, and I wish to know what you think 
of it — I mean of the criticism. I think the tragical term- 
ination of it is a great blemish. The result, or denoncmcnt, 
is against the logic of the antecedents. The hero, Francis 
Tyrrel, is portrayed as a gentleman, and a man of sense, 
and yet, he is made to play the fool in the most important 
matters ; but I insist that it is out of character for a sensi- 
ble gentleman — a man of sense and of good instincts and 
breeding — to play the fool on a point of sentiment. He 
made himself wretched, and brought the woman whom he 
loved, and who loved him, to the most tragical end by re- 
fusing to marry her, because she, by mistake of the man, 
had passed through a marriage ceremony with his treach- 
erous brother. She discovered the mistake immediately, 
and repudiated the marriage indignantly. All this was 
known to Tyrrel ; and, besides, he had a clear idea that the 
marriage had no legal validity. It does seem to me that a 
true gentleman would have felt and perceived that it had just 
as little validity in a court of morals, or a court of propri- 
ety, or taste, if you please, as it had in a court of law. To 
allow his own happiness, and that of the woman he loved, 
to be wrecked on so miserable a punetilio was conduct to be 
expected from the crazy brain of Don Quixote, but not from 
the thoughtful, high-bred, sound-minded and well-regulated 
Mr. Tyrrel. The truth is, that Scott himself was not a gen- 
tleman, and he didn't know how to paint the character. 
His only good touches in that line were what Healy told us 
all his painting was — pure copies from actual existences. 
Healy told us he couldn't paint without a model before his 
eyes. So it is with Scott, I think, in drawing all his char- 
acters, but especially in all his portraitures which have any 
success in exhibiting the gentleman. If I were not so near 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 25 1 

the end of my sheet, I would give you more about Scott ; 
and I may do so hereafter in relation to some points in his 
life, and the order in which his different works were written. 

I will only add now that your puppy is here, and that I 
have named him Bingo, from Sir Bingo Binks, in "St. Ro- 
nan's Well." Bjngo is a good-sounding name, in itself, for 
a dog, and 'then, Sir Bingo was a most suitable fellow for 
having dogs named for him. My observation of dogs teaches 
me that they make the best dogs when named for the mean- 
est people. All the "Troups" whom I have known in the 
canine race would suck eggs and kill sheep, while the 
"Clarkes" have generally been good dogs. My observa- 
tion of dogs inclines me to think there is something in old 
Sir Walter Shandy's philosophy of nomenclature. 

By the way, I have a negro whose name of Bing has 
troubled my speculations a good deal. I am now satisfied 
that Bing is only an abbreviation of Bingo, and that my 
negro owes his name to the worthy who figures in St. Ro- 
nan's. I have not published the puppy's name, and, of 
course, it remains subject to your ratification. He is a fine, 
smart fellow 

[From L. S. to A. H. S.] 

Sparta, January 14, 1863. 

Dear Brother — I have just finished a pretty long letter 
to you, which will be received by you at the same time with 
this ; and if you should chance to take up this first, why, 
lay it aside and take up the other. This is a sequel to that, 
and should come after it in the reading. About the close 
of the other, I made three or four remarks which I will now 
pursue. One was that Scott was not a gentleman, and, 
therefore, didn't know how to paint the character of a gen- 
tleman. By this, I don't mean to concur in Thomas' idea 
that he was a scoundrel. I think he was a canny ScotcJunan, 
with keen observation, a teeming memory, a fertile fancy, 
a stock of good, healthy common-sense, and had an easy 
flow of words — possessions which, according to the testi- 
mony of his contemporaries, made him a most entertaining 
companion, and whicii make him also a very entertaining 
author. These are his excellences: his faults are, a dash of 
pedantry, which is considerably subdued by his general 



252 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

good sense ; a carelessness and hurry which indicate that 
he wrote for wages, and a low breeding, which frequently be- 
trays itself in spite of that same general good sense. He 
was himself conscious of his low breeding, if I am not mis- 
taken, and endeavored to hide it under a show of ease in 
portraying the characters of the great and the genteel. The 
cloven foot often peeps out, however, through all his affect- 
ation of ease — or rather, the ease is always affected, and, 
therefore, discloses the cloven-foot. The universal fault or 
pretenders is excess in the part they are performing ; and 
excess is the precise fault of Scott in delineating a gentle- 
man. He makes Tyrrel ruin himself and his beloved by a 
foolish, fastidious punctilio. A true gentleman would have 
been above such littleness. There are passages in Scott's 
life which directly prove what is so clearly inculcated by his 
works. He was a sycophant, as is shown by his letters — 
particularly by one letter to some duke — the Duke of Buc- 
^leu»Ch. I believe it was. He evidently was quite proud of 
his servile intimacy in the duke's family. I can't now give 
you the particulars of that letter, but I know that it im- 
pressed me as containing language which, after making all 
allowances for the state of society in which he lived, could 
not be used by any independent, high-spirited man. An- 
other remark was about the order in which Scott's different 
works were written. I do not propose to give you that 
order, but I propose only to tell you how you can get it. 
Lockhart, his son-in-law, gives it in his biography, and, in 
editing his works, arranged them in a series, according to 
the times when they were written. I have Lockhart's life 
and edition of the works. When you come over next time, 
you can satisfy your curiosity on this point. Why don't 
you come? Another remark was to the effect that old Sir 
Walter Shandy's philosophy of nomenclature had something 
in it — at least, when applied to dogs. The truth is, there 
is a good deal in it, whether it be applied to dogs or men. 
I have no doubt that there are cases where names have a de- 
cided influence upon the character of the men or dogs who 
happen to bear them. In a case which once came before 
me, from Coweta county, while I was judge, one of the 
pa'rties bore the name of Napoleon Bo'naparte Potts. Now, 
sir, I am ready to maintain, against all comers and goers, 
that a man with that name can never rise in the world. A 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 253 

union of the grandiloquent and the mean is a never-failing 
source of ridicule ; and a fellow, whose appellation is Napo- 
leon Bonaparte, topped off with Potts, is destined to be 
somewhat of a butt in his passage through this world. He 
feels the ridicule of his name, and cowers and sinks under 
it, or he takes the only other alternative, and glories in it. 
Either turn is fatal to true elevation and dignity of charac- 
ter. I admit that Napoleon Bonaparte Potts' is a very ex- 
traordinary case, but it illustrates a principle, nevertheless. 
In the case of human beings, this influence which a name 
may have upon the bearer of it is of two kinds: one direct 
from the name itself, and the other reactionary from the 
world — one flowing from the inherent tendency of the name 
as perceived and appreciated by the bearer of it himself, 
and the other reflected from the world's appreciation of it. 
There is a curious tendency in men (and dogs, too) to con- 
form to the estimate which the world has of them ; in other 
words, a tendency to become what they are considered to 
be. To give a dog a bad name (in this sense, name means 
character) is not only to hang him, but also to render him, 
to some extent, at least, deserving to be hanged. The tend- 
ency is to conform to the imputed character. Now, in the 
case of dogs, the only influence from the name is of the re- 
actionary kind ; for I do not suppose that a poor dog can 
have any appreciation of any quality or tendency in a name. 
The world, however, does have such an appreciation, and 
the dog feels the effect,s of it by reflection from them — he 
feels it in caresses or in kicks. He knows not what pro- 
cures him the one or the other ; but who doubts that every 
caress and every kick has an influence upon character, and 
who doubts that a caress or a kick has often been adminis- 
tered on no better foundation than a name? Names, then, 
have an influence upon the destinies of men and dogs; but 
it would be illogical to conclude from this that great names 
have a good influence and mean names a mean influence. 
I said there was something in old Sir Walter's philosophy ; 
but I did not say there was correctness in it. It always takes 
at least two generations of philosophers to develop one 
truth in its fullness ; and what Shandy began remains to be 
completed by me! He found out that names had an influ- 
ence ; but his error consisted in supposing that the influence 
was happy or otherwise, as the name was good or bad in 



254 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

itself. On the contrary, the true rule is the inverse ratio, 
instead of the direct, and Tristram was lucky, instead of un- 
fortunate, as his father supposed, in losing the great name 
of Trismegistus. The philosophy of the true rule is very 
obvious. Let it be borne in mind that the influence of a 
name lies in the tendency of men and dogs to become what 
they are thought to be ; and then, let it further be borne in 
mind that the world does not form its opinions of men or 
dogs according to the direct import of the names tlvey bear. 
A great name, when coupled with a man or dog who is not 
great, dwarfs him into absolute meanness in the eyes of the 
world, and, by contrast between the expectation and the 
performance, becomes a source of ridicule and disgust. 
Great names excite great expectations, which are soon con- 
verted into woful disappointments ; and then comes the dam- 
aging contrast between the expectation and the perform- 
ance ; then come ridicule and contempt in the case of men, 
and kicks in the case of dogs. Within the sphere of my 
experience, the name of Troup was an honored one, while 
Clarke was supposed to embody all that was opposed to 
Troup. The consequence was that the Troup dogs all fell 
far below what was expected of them — got into disgrace 
and soon became as mean as they were thought to be — 
were kicked into sucking eggs within the first six months, 
and into killing sheep the first year ; while the Clarkes re- 
versed all this by rising above the expectations formed of 
them. I do not doubt that all this is reversed in families 
where Clarke was the favorite name. So that the true phi- 
losophy of naming men and dogs is to give them names 
which are j^/ to be made illustrious. It is all the better, 
of course, if the name is odious, and, therefore, I named 
your puppy Bingo 



[ From L. S. to his niece, Mary Grier. ] 

MiLLEDGEviLLE, March 28, 1863. 

Dear Mollie — Yesterday being 

fast-day, we had no meeting of either House of the Legis- 
lature ; but we had instead two sermons — one in the fore- 
noon from Bishop Pierce, and another in the afternoon from 
Dr. Palmer, a Presbyterian minister of great reputation, 
who is now a refugee from New Orleans. Both sermons 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 255 

were delivered to large audiences, and both were well re- 
ceived. Both orators came up to public expectation, and 
expectation ran high in both cases. Copies of both ser- 
mons will be asked for publication. If they are published, 
I will send you a copy of each, and leave you to settle for 
yourself the question, which has been often asked here and 
variously answered — which is the best? I shall want to 
know of you, not only which you think is the best, but also 
what parts of each you may think unsound or illogical — if, 
indeed, you shall find any errors in either 

[From L. S. to A. II. S. ] 

Sparta, April 4, 1863. 

Dear Brother — On my arrival 

here, I found your long letter of Sunday. It has interested 
me more than you expected, if I may measure your ex- 
pectation by the apparent hesitation with which it was 
written and the apology. I assure you no apology was 
needed. I have often sought to draw you out on religious 
subjects, but have never fully succeeded. I have always felt 
and known that you held something in reserve, and I have 
often suspected that the thing reserved was skepticism, in- 
stead of that never-failing and all-sustaining faith which you 
have now so simply and so nobly expressed. * I have been 
wondering who was the man that suspected you of infidel- 
ity or atheism, and I have rather concluded that he was 
Preston, of Virginia. Am I wrong ? This letter of yours 
has a remarkable coincidence with some other things. It 
was written the same day on which I heard that noble ser- 
mon t of which I have written you, and which, in its tone, 
was so like your letter — not more difference than strictly 
different breezes would make in blowing over the same 
golden harp, or than the same breeze would make in blow- 
ing over different harps. On that same day, Dick Johnston 
wrote me a long religious letter — such a one as he never 
wrote me before, and such as was called forth by nothing 
but a casual statement which I had made to him in a part- 

* It is a source of regret that I have not been able to find the letter 
alluded to. — Ed. 

tDr. Palmer's sermon at Milledgeville. 



256 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

ing note, as I was leaving home, about feeling sad and mel- 
ancholy. Like your letter, his dealt in his personal expe- 
rience, and was very cheering. It really looks as if the 
Holy and loving Spirit, of whom Dr. Palmer discoursed so 
beautifully, was, at that very moment, breathing upon many 
and distant harps, and bringing forth from them all harmo- 
nious melodies which lifted the soul from earth to heaven. 
This does not strike my mind as an unreasonable supposi- 
tion, and it is a very pleasant and consoling one. No sub- 
ject occupies more of my thoughts, or troubles me more, or 
interests me more, than what the world calls religion — calls 
it properly, too, and beautifully, too, if you will only strip 
it of the cant which has become polarized about it, and 
will view it simply as the chord which binds fallen man back 
again to the holy Author of his being. I shall take special 
care of your letter, and treasure it as a precious memorial 
of you, if it shall be my fortune to tarry behind you on this 
earthly stage. 

Twill meet you here at Hancock court. Don't fail to 
come, for I want to see you before you return to Richmond. 
I will now bid you good-bye. 

Most affectionately, Linton Stephens. 

The largest liberty of the citizen, compatible with protec- 
tion to property and preservation of order, was the control- 
ling principle of Judge Stephens' political creed ; it was the 
gravitating laiv, so to speak, of his political philosophy. 
Government, he believed, had accomplished its purpose, its 
full, legitimate object, when the laws, justly enforced and 
administered, protected property and preserved good order; 
and that when government had compassed those things, its 
whole mission was done. Hence, he set his face like a flint 
against the proposition, made in the Confederate States Con- 
gress, to suspend the privileges of the writ of habeas corpus. 
He looked upon the slightest movement in that direction 
with alarm and horror. The first lesson he had learned in 
the science of American popular government was that the 
writ of habeas corpus is the chief corner-stone of personal 
liberty — hewn out of the mountain by our sturdy Eng- 
lish ancestry at Runnymede. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS, 257 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, April 6, 1863. 

Dear Brother — As William Hidell returns to Crawford- 
ville to-morrow, I write another letter, in addition to the 
one of yesterday evening, with the view of getting him to 
carry them both. Some things which he tells me are news 
to me, and are of ominous significance. I refer particularly 
to the "political prisoners" at Salisbury, and the President's 
application to Congress for authority to suspend the writ of 
habeas corpus whenever and wherever lie may please. I be- 
lieve that if this authority is granted to him, free govern- 
ment will be irretrievably gone. What can he want with 
it? It is a delusion to let our preconception of his charac- 
ter weigh down the tremendous significance of his present 
actions. He has inaugurated, and persistently and consist- 
ently pursued, a system of policy which seems to me to look 
to absolutism. He and the Lincoln government seem to 
me to be running a rapid race against each other in usurp- 
ation and madness. Each faithfully follows every pattern 
that is set by the other, upon the apparent conviction that 
what is borne in the one will be borne in the other, and 
each has shown a remarkable alacrity in furnishing its due 
proportion of examples to the common stock. We gave 
them "conscription," and now we have taken from them 
in exchange "political prisoners" and discretionary suspen- 
sion of habeas corpus — not such a suspension as comports 
with the constitutional restrictions upon it, but such as are 
intended to get rid of these very restrictions. It is not the 
least exaggeration to say that all the usurpations and tyr- 
annies of each are promptly and faithfully copied by the 
other; and what must be the possible result but the crush- 
ing out of constitutional liberty, and the establishment ot 
absolutism in both countries? Their emissaries and bribed 
journals are engaged in the partially secret but certain and 
persistent work of decrying free government as a failure, 
and thus preparing the sickened and weary hearts of the 
people for the coup d' etat. If Congress yields to this last 
demand, I believe we shall be lost forever. I would intro- 
duce warning and rallying resolutions into the Legislature 
if I did not feel well assured that they would be overwhelm- 
ingly lost, and that their loss would encourage the enemies 
26* 



258 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

of liberty, and rivet the chains which they are preparing for 
our submissive and pusillanimous limbs. Our submission 
to conscription was a woful mistake. It ought to have been 
resisted promptly , and utterly resisted. Will mankind never 
be able to appropriate the teachings of history without a 
personal experience? Must they wait to be enslaved before 
they will learn that every usurpation which is accomplished 
becomes a new fortress from which tyranny assails the ram- 
parts of liberty ; and that usurpation is never appeased, but 
always whetted and strengthened by submission? Are our 
people only insensible to this truth, or have they, indeed, 
become sick of their liberty, and resolved to take refuge 
under the wings of an absolute ruler? In either case, dc- 
coicy demands that we should cease to denounce the usurp- 
ations and tyrannies of Lincoln. These rapidly accumulat- 
ing and gigantic usurpations, with a connecting tJiread run- 
ning through the whole of them and binding them together 
as links in a chain, fill me with alarm, and the mean and 
pusillanimous submission of our people fills me with de- 
spair. One significant link in that chain is the scheme of 
State indorsement of Confederate debts ; and we have had 
a foretaste of the operation of it in the insolent assumption 
of sending a special agent to lecture the State Legislature 
upon its duty to the central head. I wish I could see you 
before I go back to Milledgeville, but I cannot. My im- 
pression is that the indorsement scheme will be worked 
through, and that the conscription resolutions will either be 
cut off by an early adjournment, or will be indefinitely post- 
poned by a large vote. A Legislature which can be be- 
guiled and scared into an acquiescence in conscription, by 
the plea of necessity and the bug-bear of reorganizing the 
army in the face of the enemy, when the only reorganiza- 
tion dreamed of by anybody is just siicJi a one as was effected 
by conscription itself in the face of the enemy — a change in 
the mode of appointing future officers — will submit to any- 
thing! I have no hope from them. My judgment of them 
is that they are against a fuss under all circumstances, and 
that they will, therefore, submit implicitly to whoever may 
be in possession of that power which surrounds them at the 
moment — to Mr. Davis now, and to Mr. Lincoln if he 
should ever overrun the country. They would not hesitate 
to repeat the ignominy of the Kentucky Legislature with 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 259 

the same surroundings. The personal pusillanimity of some 
of them is such that they would to-day sign and seal a bar- 
gain for the security of their victuals and clothes. God 
grant that I may be mistaken, but I believe we are lost! 
Congress could save us — the Georgia Legislature could save 
us — but neither of them has the courage or sense to do it ; 

and I repeat that I believe we are lost ! 

Most affectionately, Linton Stephens. 

In the summer of 1863, Judge Stephens raised a troop of 
horse for State defense, and repaired to Atlanta. Rosecrans 
was threatening our northern border. The company was 
merged into a battalion, organized at Atlanta — ^Judge Ste- 
phens being elected to the command. 

[From L. S. to A. H. S.] 

Sandtown, Ga., 5^ O'clock p. m., Sept. i6, 1863. 

Dear Brother — General Cobb is 

as agreeable as I had expected. He thinks the State troops 
are likely to be out a good while; he didn't say the whole 
term of six months, but I think we are regularly in. I feel 
very much as if we had been tricked — indeed, I shared the 
general suspicion, from the beginning, that we were walk- 
ing into a trap. I walked in with my mind made up to be 
trapped ; but it is a deplorable state of things when the 
pledges of the government fail to inspire credence even in 
its blindest supporters. Nobody relishes the consciousness 
of being fooled; but I remain resolved to bear whatever 
may come. I have not lost my temper, on any occasion, 
from the beginning to this time. I am very much annoyed 
by many things, but I have kept cool. The men — espe- 
cially the boys — run to me with their slightest accidents, 
even to the broken straps and strings about their saddles. 
I have, in every case, given them the best advice which oc- 
curred to me, and treated their little mishaps with sympa- 
thy and kindness. 

We are all getting on harmoniously in the main — more 
so than I ever saw any company before. The sick man has 
become very sick. I have got him into a private house, 
and detailed Dr. Tom Andrews, his neighbor at home, to 



26o BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

attend him. I am afraid he will have to go to the hospital ; 
for the lady, whose house he is now in, said she could keep 
him only last night. Besides this case, there are two others 
of sickness — one of chills and the other rheumatism. They 
remain in camp as yet. We had a very sudden change of 
weather night before last, and this morning we had quite a 
frost. Everybody complains of the cold, and of having 
slept very cold last night. I got very cold, and thought 
once I should have a chill, but I escaped. The rations 
which I drew yesterday, as far as meat is concerned, con- 
sisted of lO^ pounds of bacon and 297 pounds of miserable 
beef for 47 men one %veek. The beef I take by installments. 
General Cobb says he thinks there will be considerable 
"billing and cooing" before the big fight begins, and that 
a big fight will then come off He told me that Bragg was 
drawing rations for seventy thousand men. I am going in 
town to take dinner with Anderson, and must wash up and 
change my clothes. I am exceedingly dirty, as are all the 
rest. My company is the only one of the battalion that has 
arrived. General Cobb tells me, as I expected, that we 
will all have to form regiments, or be thrown into regimicnts 
by him. He still allows us the chance to form them our- 
selves and elect our own officers. He told me that General 
Toombs and his regiment would remain at Athens, where 
they now are. I am sorry that Mr. Conrad's visit is likely 
to prevent you from coming here. I would like very much 
to see you. You can get quarters at Mrs. Whitehead's, as 
I told you, and as you will see from the inclosed note from 
her. She handed it to me after you left Sparta. I intended 
to send it to you by Evans, but forgot it, in the hurry and 
stress of attention to other matters, in getting off I must 
write Cosby a letter ; and so good-bye. I am writing on 
my knee, with my back against a hickory sapling. Write 
to me often ; it does me good to get letters from you, even 
when they are short. 

Yours, most affectionately, 

Linton Stephens. 

[ From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Atlanta, September 23, 1863. 
Dear Brother — Speaking of ap- 
pointments, my old class-mate, Robert J. Henderson, of 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 26 1 

Covington, desires promotion to a brigadiership. He has 
eighteen months' experience as a colonel, and he is a man 
of character and education. I have no doubt he would 
make a better brigadier than many we have. He and his 
regiment were among the Vicksburg captives. I told him 
what rule you had adopted in relation to military recom- 
mendations, but that I would lay his case before you, with 
a request that you would do for him what you could con- 
sistently with your views of right and propriety 

General Cobb is very agreeable to me ; but he has always 

been so towards me in a pretty marked degree 

Our side seems to have had the decided advantage in the 
late fight, but I do not regard the result as yet decided. I 
can't help feeling great apprehension.'^ 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Atlanta, October 3, 1863. 

Dear Brother — It has been several days since I have 
written to you, and several since I have received any letter 
from you. I suppose this will probably find you at home. 
I am still ignorant of the future probable movements of my 
battalion, farther than a slight inference that we will not be 
moved within the next four or five days. Last night, I 
recommended a furlough to a man on condition that the 
General should think the furlough would probably expire 
before the battalion would be moved. The furlough was 
granted ; and, as it was for five days, I concluded the Gen- 
eral thought that we would not be moved within that time. 
This is all I know beyond the General's intimation, of which 
I have before informed you, to the effect that we might be 
kept here to catch deserters. You see I have made a rise 
in the way of writing implements, and I hope the change 
from pencil to ink will be as pleasant to you as it is to me. 
I have a box for a writing-desk, and am altogether better 
prepared for writing than I have been before. I now have 
five companies in camp, and I understand that the captain 
and first lieutenant of the Baldwin company are in the city; 
the company is probably near at hand. On Monday, I 

*The battle of Chickamauga had been fought on the 19th and 20th of 

September. 



262 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

want to hold an election for an additional field-officer, and 
complete the organization of the battalion. Whether it will 
be run up to a regiment, I don't know, but General Cobb 
says he intends so. The cavalry material here present is 
exhausted, with the exception of a squadron of four com- 
panies, which the General has agreed may retain its sepa- 
rate organization for the present, and two other companies, 
one of which has boundaries not extending across the Chat- 
tahoochee River. I don't know how he will manage it, but 
he says he intends to run my battalion up to a full regiment. 
Night before last (the first), we had a terrible storm of wind 
and rain. Our tents blew down and leaked so that we all 
got very wet ; some have taken cold from the exposure, but 
I have not. I put on my overcoat and saved my body from 
the wetting, though my legs got well soaked. After the 
storm abated, I took a nap of an hour's length in my wet 

clothes I am standing 

up as well as anybody so far The Baldwin 

company has come into camp since I have been writing. 
Two lads came here this morning, from Sparta, and told me 
that, on last Wednesday night, my smoke-house on the lot 
was broken open and all the meat taken out of it, and that 
quite a number of negroes had been taken up and were in 
jail on account of it I feel very un- 
easy about the state of things at home, and in the country 
similarly .situated. This war cannot be carried on success- 
fully upon the present basis. If we are prepared to admit 
that we cannot continue the struggle without stripping the 
country of all its men, we might as well abandon the con- 
test and accept our fate. There is a plan by which the con- 
test can be successfully conducted without the present rapid 
and destructive consumption of all our resources, but will 

it ever be accepted? But enough of this 

I saw General Forrest yesterday evening. He was just from 
the ' ' front " (to use a phrase which has become a cant), and 
he said he didn't think there would be any more fighting in 
several days. He said he was going to LaGrange to rest 
himself a week. On the other hand, ammunition drays 
Vv'ere running nearly all last night from the arsenal to the 
railroad, indicating preparation for another fight. It seems 
to me that the two armies have now settled down for a spell, 
and I have no doubt the State troops will be retained to 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 263 

guard Bragg's rear, or for some other purpose. Our negro 
population is going to give us great trouble. They are be- 
coming extensiv^ely corrupted. The necessary pains to keep 
them on our side, and in order, have been unwisely and 
sadly neglected. The terms on which I told you I would 
be willing to settle, there is a great deal in. My mind has 
only been eonfiruied in the views then expressed. I believe 
that the institution of slavery is already so undermined and 
demoralized as never to be of much use to us, even if we 
had peace and independence to-day. The institution has 
received a terrible shock, which is tending to its disintegra- 
tion and ruin ! 

Most affectionately, Linton Stephens. 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Atlanta, October 17, 1863. 
Dear Brother — To-day, I got a letter from Cosby, say- 
ing that you had promised, and expected to return to Sparta 
next Monday to be present at the trials of the negroes ; and 
I therefore have little hopes of these lines reaching you be- 
fore you get off, and still less of seeing you up here. I have 
been very desirous to see you ; and, as I cannot go to see 
you, I thought you would come to see me; but I have now 
given up that idea, and have made up my mind to get along 
on my own hook. This is Saturday night, not quite dark 
yet, and I am writing by a candle in my tent, and I am 
immersed in a hum of voices discussing such matters as men 
in camp can find to interest them. The weather is now 
charming. The clouds cleared off yesterday evening, and 
I walked out to the edge of the camp for the express pur- 
pose of getting a clear view of the new moon. My first 
sight of it was very clear. I dispensed with the usual drill 
this evening, and had all hands to clean up the camp, each 
company cleaning off its own ground, and all ventilating 
and cleaning out their tents. All the offices of the battal- 
ion are now filled, except ordnance-sergeant and chaplain. 

The ordnance-sergeant, though not 

ranking high, is a very important officer; for he has charge 
of all the ammunition. Mr. Akerman* fills this place for 

* Mr. Akerman was, after the war, Attorney-General of the United 
States. 



264 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

General Toombs. I wish I had such a man to fill it for me. 

General Cobb is now gone to the 

"front," and, in his absence to-day, I got a note from his 
adjutant, saying that General Bragg had telegraphed to 
General Cobb to send forty or fifty men to Meridian, Mis- 
sissippi, to drive beeves from there to his army, and asking 
me if I could furnish the men for the service. I answered 
him very promptly that I %vould not, and- then rode up to 
see him, and gave him my reasons for refusing much more 
in full than I had done in the written answer to his note. 
My reasons are these : In the first place, I think it very 
doubtful whether there are any beeves at Meridian ; in the 
next place, if there are any there, and it were proper to 
bring them away, tve are not the people to do it. Where 
are the Mississippi State troops, I wonder? Cobb's adju- 
tant informed me, in response to my question, that some of 
them are at Meridian now. Did you ever hear of more 
patent foil)-? It would be three weeks, with the best of 
work, before my men could get there to start the cattle, to 
say nothing of the hardship of asking us to go and do the 
work which lies at the door of the Mississippians. In the 
next place, if I approved of the job, and as the selection of 
us as the men, I still would not do it, because we are not 
provided with the means. The proposition was to start 
forty or fifty men for Meridian on horseback, provided with 
two days' rations and nothing else. It is about a forty days' 
job, and the men would have to support themselves and 
horses. I have not yet, nor has any captain, got back one 
cent of the money we paid out in getting here, and in the 
detached service in which my Greene county company was 

sent after they got here 

Our battalion-quartermaster is a first-rate business man. 
A few such men in the high places of the quartermaster's 
department would soon produce magical changes in its affairs. 
He is a Wilkes county boy, who went to New York as a 
clerk, and soon worked, himself up to a partnership in a 
large mercantile house. He never saw West Point in his 
life, and only knows business. Seven-eighths of the work 
of an army is business, and requires business talent. The 
other eighth is statesmanship, and requires a talent pos- 
sessed by very few men in the country. . . . Good-bye. 
Affectionately, Linton Stephens, 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 265 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Atlanta, October 29, 1863. 

Dear Brother — In great haste, I drop you a line to say 
that we have received orders to go to Savannah to meet an 
attack which General Beauregard apprehends at that point, 
and to suggest that you do not come up here as you ex- 
pected. I give you the earliest notice of this movement, 
hoping it may be in time to stop you. We go by home in 
separate companies, with orders to the several captains to 
take up the line of march, from their respective court- 
houses, for Savannah, fifteen days from to-morrow morning. 
I like the movement very much. I shall send my horses 
home by Gary, and go myself by railroad. I expect to get 
to your house Thursday or Friday, day or night, I don't 
know which. When I see you, I will explain all to you; 
at present, I have not time. 

Most affectionately yours, 

Linton Stephens. 



[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Milledgeville, November 18, 1863. 

Dear Brother — I arrived here this morning, and went 
into the session of the House without shaving or changing 
the clothes which I wore away from here last Thursday. 
With the dirt, and loss of sleep, and cold last night, I am 
feeling to-day very much like a "stewed witch." On my 
arrival here, I found three letters from you, of the 13th, 14th 
and 15th. Of course, I ain unable to tell you, as you de- 
sired to know, which of these came quickest. This is the 
first I have heard from you since I left here. I also found 
a long letter from General Cobb. The inference which I 
draw from it is that he wishes to be senator. He says his 
personal wishes are balanced by conflicting considerations; 
but he also says he will accept if elected. Mr. Toombs is 
absent, to my great regret. Shockly thinks there is a ma- 
jority for him now, with an improving tendency in his favor. 
I hope so. I think Mr. Toombs is mistaken as to Cobb's 
true position, and, therefore, I am very doubtful of the esti- 
mates of himself and friends. I feel very badly to-day, but 

'^1 



266 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

not low-spirited I left everything quiet in 

Savannah I am to meet a committee now, 

and must close. Good-bye. 

Most affectionately, Linton Stephens. 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

MiLLEDGEViLLE, November 20, 1863. 

Dear Brother — The adjournment of the House to-day, 
in respect to the memory of a deceased member, gives me, 
not leisure — for I have business enough — but a respite from 
pressing duty ; and I avail myself of it to tell you that I 
have not heard from you since I wrote last, and to tell you 
how gloomy and lonely I feel. The deceased member was 
Mr. Herrington, of Terrell county. I did not know him 
even by sight. He had just gone through a successful con- 
test for his seat, and then laid down and died. Old man 
Oslin, the well-known messenger of the House, is now about 
to die — is considered hopeless. Poor old man ! I have 
known him long, and have valued him for some sterling 
qualities. His industry, particularly, was a model. His 
kindness of heart and general accommodating spirit are also 
very conspicuous traits in his character 

We had a fight in the House to-day over a bill to stop 
interest on all contracts where payment in Confederate 
money might be refused. I opposed it on the constitutional 
ground that it impaired the obligation of contracts. There 
was a considerable little debate between Wallace and Elam 
and myself. Mathews, of Oglethorpe, made a very sensi- 
ble speech on my side. I icalloped them so badly that they 
couldn't get enough to call the yeas and nays. On the 
policy of the bill, I expressed no opinion of my own, but 
told them what Washington's contract was in refusing Con- 
tinental money at par when it was only five to one. 

said he had never heard of that before, but did not doubt 
its truth after my statement of it. He then went on to say 
that it was a disastrous day when Washington took that 
position ; the cry went out all over the country that the 
' ' Father of his Country " had refused to take war-currency, 
and then the fate of that currency was sealed forever. I 
asked him if he did not know that Washington had taken 
that position, how could he know what sort of a "cry" was 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 267 

raised about it? This raised quite a laugh on , and 

was a sort of settHng stroke. I doubt which made the most 
votes — my argument, which, I think, was unanswerable, 
and which certainly was unanswered, or that little hit, which 

had nothing to do with the merits. I also caught in 

as bad a trap — worse, really, for he did not escape under 

the cover of a laugh as did. He referred to the law 

of 1845, changing interest from 8 to 7 per cent., as an au- 
thority to show that interest on existing, as well as future, 
contracts was under legislative control. He represented 
that law as operating on contracts which then existed, as 
well as on future ones. At first, he put it with some hesi- 
tation ; but, finding that I did not correct him, he grew 
very confident, and spoke of having made settlements on 
that basis. He then said he knew he was right in his rec- 
ollection of that law ; and yet, he had never heard its con- 
stitutionality called into question. He had then got his foot 
properly into it, and I rose and read to him the first lines 
of the law — "On all bonds, notes, contracts, etc., made 
rt//^r the pas.sage of this act. " I laid down the book and 
took my seat without a word of comment. He looked 
badly, and soon subsided. It made a hole in him and let 
out all his steam. He collapsed and sunk like a bellows 
with a similar disaster. Then these gentlemen pitched into 
me, and not I into them. 

But I must bring this letter to a close ; for I have some 
others to write, and then a long and somewhat difficult bill 
to draw, to provide for the education of the children of indi- 
gent soldiers 

Yours, most affectionately, 

Linton Stephens. 



[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

MiLLEDGEViLLE, December 4, 1863. 

Dear Brother — I ought to have written to you yester- 
day, but I did not, because I was sick — quite sick — and 
confined to my, room (but not to my bed) until the after- 
noon. I should have staid in doors during the afternoon 
also, but Mr. Bacon came to see me, and said the cotton- 
bill was coming to a vote, and begged me to go up and vote 



268 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

on it. I went and made a speech — as good a one, nic ju- 
dicc\ as ever I made — but it didn't succeed. It had too 
much truth to be digested at a single meal. The restric- 
tion-bill was carried by one majority. There will'be an 
effort to reconsider this morning, probably successful. The 
House, yesterday, concurred in a Senate resolution to ad- 
journ on the 1 2th. I must hurry up to the House, and have 
no time to write as I wish. I never was so oppressed with 
a parting, as I was last Tuesday, in taking leave of you and 
the children and Cosby. I had a feeling of unutterable woe, 
and I have it now. It seeks no utterance, because it is 
conscious of being able to find none. I am much better 
this morning. I have just got your letter, written as you 
were about to depart from my house, and it has helped me 
somewhat. I wish I could bring myself to the point of 
being resigned to whatever may happen ! Sometimes, I 
have thought I had reached it, but poor human nature has 
broken down on the way. God help us all ! And, O God, 
have mercy on poor, miserable sinners, of whom I am one ! 
Yours, most affectionately, 

Linton Stephens. 



[From L. S. to A. H. S.] 

MiLLEDGEViLLE, December ii, 1863. 

Dear Brother — I have just read your two letters of the 
9th and loth; and, though I am not able to write, I have 
determined to drop you a few lines, because these letters, 
and the one of the 8th, which I got last night, have filled 
me and oppressed me with a sense of my injustice and neg- 
ligence of our correspondence. I got the Governor to write 
to you for me last Tuesday. I see, and was surprised to 
see, that you had not got his letter when you wrote yester- 
day. I have been very unwell ever since I left home — or 
rather, ever since I got here the last time 

Your account of " the Parson " is a most wonderful one to 
me, but beautiful in the extreme. It looks as if all the 
landmarks, in this world, of my whilom acquaintance, are 
all passing rapidly away. It is very painful and depressing 
to me; but the manner in which you speak of them shows 
that you feel them as deeply, if not as violently, as I do, 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 269 

and the calmness and quiet resignation which you display- 
in speaking; of them are beautiful to me, while it rebukes 

my own despair 

Yours, most affectionately, 

Linton Stephens. 

The reader will see, from the last three preceding letters, 
that Judge Stephens was chosen a member of the House of 
Representatives in the autumn of 1863. The most import- 
ant measures with which he was intimately and prominently 
identified were: An act of the Legislature, granting sup- 
plies of food, raiment, etc., to persons left destitute by the 
ravages of war, in sections of the State overrun by the Fed- 
eral army ; that measure he ardently supported. Another, 
which he opposed, was the measure to indorse, by the State, 
the Confederate debt. He introduced a series of resolutions 
declaring the suspension of the writ of habeas cor'pus to be 
unconstitutional. His speech in advocacy of the resolutions 
was regarded by those who heard it, and who had heard 
him on other occasions in deliberative bodies, as the ablest 
he ever made in a parliamentary assembly ; it was worthy 
of the subject, the occasion, the time, and the man. It con- 
vinced the reason of the Legislature ; for the resolutions 
were adopted. Here follow the resolutions entire — the text 
of the masterly plea he uttered in behalf of constitutional 
government and the liberty of the citizen : 

RESOLUTIONS 

Introduced by Hon. Linton Stephens on the Suspension 
OF the Writ of Habeas Corpus. 

Tlic General Assembly of the State of Georgia do resolve, i. 
That, under the Constitution of the Confederate States, 
there is no power to suspend the privilege of the Avrit of 
habeas corpus, but in a manner and to an extent regulated 
and limited by the express, emphatic and unqualified consti- 
tutional prohibitions, that "no person shall be deprived of 



27c BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

life, liberty or property without due process of law," and 
that " the right of the people to be secure in their persons, 
houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches 
and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall 
issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirm- 
ation, and particularly describing the places to be searched 
and the persons or things to be seized." And this conclu- 
sion results from the two following reasons: First. Because 
the power to suspend the writ is derived not from express 
delegation, but only from implication, which must always 
yield to express, conflicting and restricting words. Second. 
Because this power, being found nowhere in the Constitu- 
tion, but in words, which are copied from the original Con- 
stitution of the United States, as adopted in 1787, must 
yield, in all points of conflict, to the subsequent amendments 
of 1789, which are also copied into our present Constitu- 
tion, and which contain the prohibitions above quoted, and 
were adopted with the declared purpose of adding further 
declaratory and restrictive clauses. 

2. That "due process of law" for seizing the persons of 
the people, as defined by the Constitution itself, is a war- 
rant issued upon probable cause, supported by oath or af- 
firmation, and particularly describing the persons to be 
seized ; and the issuing of such warrants, being the exertion 
of a judicial power, is, if done by any branch of the govern- 
ment except the judiciary, a plain violation of that provi- 
sion of the Constitution which vests the judicial power in 
the courts alone ; and, therefore, all seizures of the persons 
of the people, by any officer of the Confederate Government, 
without warrant, and all warrants for that purpose, from 
any but a judicial source, are, in the judgment of this Gen- 
eral Assembly, unreasonable and unconstitutional. 

3. That the recent act of Congress, to suspend the priv- 
ilege of the writ of habeas corpus in cases of arrests, ordered 
by the President, Secretary of War, or general officer com- 
manding the trans-Mississippi military department, is an at- 
tempt to sustain the military authority in the exercise of 
the constitutional, judicial function of issuing warrants, and 
to give validity to unconstitutional seizures of the persons 
of the people; and as the said act, by its express terms, 
confines its operations to the upholding of this class of un- 
constitutional seizures, the whole suspension attempted to 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 27! 

be authorized by it, and the whole act itself, in the judg- 
ment of this General Assembly, are unconstitutional. 

4. That, in the judgment of this General Assembly, the 
said act is a dangerous assault upon the constitutional power 
of the courts, and upon the liberty of the people, and be- 
yond the power of any possible necessity to justify it; and 
while our Senators and Representatives in Congress are 
earnestly urged to take the first possible opportunity to 
have it repealed, we refer the question of its validity to the 
courts, with the hope that the people and the military au- 
thorities will abide by the decision. 

5. That, as constitutional liberty is the sole object which 
our people and our noble army have, in our present terrible 
struggle with the government of Mr. Lincoln, so also is a 
faithful adherence to it, on the part of our own govern- 
ment, through good fortune in arms, and through bad,, one 
of the great elements of our strength and final success, be- 
cause the constant contrast of constitutional government, on 
our part, with the usurpations and tyrannies which charac- 
terize the government of oujj enemy under the ever-recur- 
ring and ever-false plea of the necessities of war, will have 
the double effect of animating our people with an uncon- 
querable zeal, and of inspiring the people of the North more 
and more with a desire and determination to put an end to 
a contest which is waged by their government openly 
against our liberty, and as truly, but more covertly, against 
their own. 

Thomas Hardeman, 
Speaker House Representatives . 
L. Carrington, Clei'k. 

Peter Cone, 
President pro teni. of Senate. 
L. H. Kenan, Secretaiy of Senate. 

Approved March 19, 1864: 

Joseph E, Brown, Governor. 

He also introduced the following resolutions, "Declaring 
the ground on which the Confederate States stand in the 
war, and the terms on which peace ought to be offered to 
the enemy : " 



2/2 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

The General Assembly of the State of Georgia do resolve, i. 
That, "to secure the rights of life, Hberty and the pursuit of 
happiness, governments were instituted among men, deriv- 
ing their just powers from the consent of the governed ; 
that whenever any form of government becomes destructive 
of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to 
abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its 
foundations on such principles, and organizing its powers in 
such a form, as shall seem to them most likely to effect 
their safety and happiness." 

2. That the best possible commentary upon this grand 
text of our fathers of 1776 is their accompanying action, 
which it was put forth to justify, and that action was the 
immortal declaration that the former political connection 
between the Colonies and the State of Great Britain was 
dissolved, and the Thirteen Colonies were, and of right 
ought to be, not one independent State, but thirteen inde- 
pendent States, each of them being such a "people " as had 
the right, whenever they chose to exercise it, to separate 
themselves from a political association and government of 
their former choice, and institute a new government to suit 
themselves. 

3. That if Rhode Island, with her meager elements of 
nationality, was such a "people" in 1776, when her sepa- 
ration from the government and people of Great 'Britain 
took place, much more was Georgia, and each of the seced- 
ing States, with their large territories, populations and re- 
sources, such a "people," and entitled to exercise the same 
right in 1861, when they decreed their separation from the 
government and the people of the United States ; and if the 
separation was rightful in the first case, it was more clearly 
so in the last — the right depending, as it does in the case 
of every "people" for whom it is claimed, simply upon 
their fitness and their will to constitute an independent 
State. 

4. That this right was perfect in each of the States, to be 
exercised by her, or at her own pleasure, without challenge 
or resistance from any other power whatever; and while 
these Southern States had long had reason enough to justify 
its assertion against some of their faithless associates, yet, 
remembering the dictate of "prudence," that "govern- 
ments long established should not be changed for light and 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 273 

transient causes," they forbore a resort to its exercise until 
numbers of the Northern States, State after State, through 
a series of years, and by studied legislation, had arrayed 
themselves in open hostility against an acknowledged pro- 
vision of the Constitution, and had at last succeeded in the 
election of a President who was the avowed exponent and 
executioner of their faithless designs against the constitu- 
tional rights of their Southern sisters — rights which had 
been often adjudicated by the courts, and which were never 
denied by the abolitionists themselves, but upon the ground 
that the Constitution itself was void whenever it came in con- 
flict with a "higher law," which they could not find among 
the laws of God, and which depended, for its exposition, 
solely upon the elastic consciences of rancorous partisans. 
The Constitution thus broken, and deliberately and persist- 
ently repudiated by several of the States who were parties 
to it, ceased, according to universal law, to be binding on 
any of the rest, and those States which had been wronged 
by the breach were justified in using their rights to provide 
"new guards for their future security." 

5. That the reasons which justified the separation, when 
it took place, have been vindicated and enhanced in force 
by the subsequent course of the government of Mr. Lin- 
coln — by his contemptuous rejection of the Confederate 
commissioners, who were sent to Washington before the 
war to settle all matters of difference without a resort to 
arms, thus evincing his determination to have war — by his 
armed occupation of the territory of the Confederate States, 
and especially by his treacherous attempt to reinforce his 
garrisons in their midst, after they had, in pursuance of 
their right, withdrawn their people and territory from the 
jurisdiction of his government, thus rendering war a neces- 
sity, and actually inaugurating the present lamentable war — 
by his official denunciation of the Confederate States as 
" rebel " and "disloyal " States for their rightful withdrawal 
from their faithless associate States, while no word of cen- 
sure has ever fallen from him against those faithless States 
who were truly "disloyal" to the Union and the Constitu- 
tion, which was the only cement of the Union, and who 
were the true authors of all the wrong and all the mischief 
of the separation, thus insulting the innocent by charging 
upon them the crimes of his own guilty allies — and, finally, 



274 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

by his monstrous usurpations of power and undisguised re- 
pudiation of the Constitution, and his mocking scheme of 
securing a repubHcan form of government to sovereign 
States by putting nine-tenths of the people under the do- 
minion of one-tenth, who may be abject enough to swear 
allegiance to his usurpation, thus betraying his design to 
subvert true constitutional republicanism in the North as 
well as in the South. 

6. That, while we regard the present war between these 
Confederate States and the United States as a huge crime, 
whose beginning and continuance are justly chargeable to 
the government of our enemy, yet, we do not hesitate to 
affirm that, if our own government, and the people of both 
governments, would avoid all participation in the guilt of its 
continuance, it becomes all of them, on all proper occasions 
and in all proper ways — the people acting through their 
State organizations and popular assemblies, and our govern- 
ment through its appropriate departments — to use their 
earnest efforts to put an end to this unnatural, unchristian 
and savage work of carnage and havoc ; and to this end, we 
earnestly recommend that our government, immediately 
after signal successes of our arms, and on other occasions, 
when none can impute its action to alarm, instead of a sin- 
cere desire for peace, shall make to the government of our 
enemy an official offer of peace, on the basis of the great 
principle declared by our common fathers in 1776, accom- 
panied by the distinct expression of a willingness, on our 
part, to follow that principle, to its true logical consequences, 
by agreeing that any border State, whose preference for our 
association may be doubted, (doubts having been expressed 
as to the wishes of the border States,) shall settle the ques- 
tion for herself by a convention, to be elected for that pur- 
pose, after the withdrawal of all military forces, of both 
sides, from her limits. 

7. That we believe this course, on the part of our gov- 
ernment, would constantly weaken, and sooner or later 
break down, the war-power of our enemy by showing to 
his people the justice of our cause, our willingness to make 
peace on the principles of 1776, and the shoulders on which 
rests the responsibility for the continuance of the unnatural 
strife ; that it would be hailed by our people and citizen- 
soldiery, who are bearing the brunt of the war, as an assur- 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 2/5 

ance that peace will not be unnecessarily delayed, nor their 
sufferings unnecessarily prolonged ; and that it would be 
regretted by nobody on either side, except men, whose im- 
portance, or whose gains, would be diminished by peace, 
and men whose ambitious designs would need cover under 
the ever-recurring plea of the necessities of war. 

8. That while the foregoing is an expression of the senti- 
ments of this General Assembly, respecting the manner in 
which peace should be sought, we renew our pledges of the 
resources and power of this State to the prosecution of the 
war, defensive on our part, until peace is obtained upon 
just and honorable terms, and until the independence and 
nationality of the Confederate States are established upon 
a permanent and enduring basis. 

Thomas Hardeman, 
Speaker House Representatives. 
L. Carrington, Clerk. 

. Peter Cone, 
President pro teni'. of Senate. 
L. H. Kenan, Secretary of Senate. 
Approved March 19, 1864: 

Joseph E. BfTown, Governor. 

Judge Stephens always felt the liveliest interest in the 
fortunes of aspiring and ingenuous youth ; and while he was 
the most undemonstrative of men, perhaps no man in the 
country could count a larger number of young men so 
warmly attached to him. He was ever ready to aid the de- 
serving by his counsels or by his purse ; nor was he the least 
obtrusive with the one, or the least stint with the other. 

The following letter was written to the son of his old 
friend, Dr. Edward W. Alfriend. The boy, at the age of 
sixteen, had entered the military service of the Confederate 
States. He is now a member of the Georgia bar, of brill- 
iant promise : 

[From L. S. to Master Alfred Alfriend.] 

Sparta, May 30, 1864. 

Dear Alfred — At all events, I 

took a thorough search for you, but did not find you. I 



276 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

have never yet ascertained where you spent that night in 
Augusta. Cousin Sally expressed her regret that you did 
not go to her house with brother and myself, after she had 
learned from us that you had gone along on the same train 
with us, and had to spend the night somewhere in Augusta. 
My regret on the occasion was not founded on my anxiety 
for your comfort during the night, for I did not doubt that 
you would find comfortable quarters somewhere; but on 
the desire I had to have you spend the night with me, and, 
at all events, to give you a parting grasp of the hand and a 
hearty God-speed in the new and important career on which 
you were entering. This letter is intended mainly to speak 
that God-speed now for then, and to assure you of, at least, 
one friend, outside your own immediate family, who will 
always look with an anxious eye for your preservation amid 
the dangers of many kinds which will surround you, and 
for your restoration to friends, unscathed in body and soul, 
with worthy laurels, wrung from rugged war, to be long 
enjoyed and increased amid the charms of blessed peace. 
I don't wish to render my letter disagreeable to you by ob- 
truding upon you unwelcome advice; nor do I think that 
you will take that view of a few words drawn from the ex- 
perience of one who has been a pretty close, if not a very 
long, observer of the world, and whose motive for speaking 
them is a desire to serve a young friend treading an untried 
path. I know the enemy well, and whether you have yet 
found out the fact or not, I know that you will be exposed 
there to peculiar and strong temptations. I do not mean 
to flatter you when I say that I know no one of your age 
on whom I should expect such temptations to produce less 
impression ; and yet, I must beg you not to be too self-con- 
fident. I do not mean to guard you against vanity, but 
against an over-confidence in your stability and firmness. 
Some distrust, on that point, is far better than an undoubting 
confidence. " Let him that tJiinkctJi he standeth, take heed 
lest he fall." This is an admonition from God himself, and 
no sensible man has ever reached my time of Jife without 
having had occasion to apply it to himself. There are tzvo 
tilings which, united, can bring you safe through your pres- 
ent moral ordeal, and notJiing else can: the cultivation of a 
habit of careful self-ivatcJiing, and a meek, but unflinching 
resolution never to disregard the dictates of your judgment. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 277 

Never let any circumstance seduce you into the taking of 
even a single drink of liquor, unless it shall be in good faith 
prescribed for you by a physician ; and never allow your 
lips to take the name of God in vain. The scenes of death 
and havoc, amid which you will have to move, will inevita- 
bly tend to render you callous, and to harden and blunt 
those gentle and noble sympathies which are so appropriate 
to youth, and which are an honor and ornament to all ages 
and conditions. I say this will be the tendency, and there 
is no man who can entirely escape its natural effects. 
Hence it is that long wars always tend to produce a relapse 
from civilization back into barbarism. Under these circum- 
stances, there is, for the preservation of the moral nature, 
no expedient equal to the careful cultivation and habitual 
exercise of the vitclhxtual faculties. I know there is no. 
very favorable opportunity for this sort of cultivation in the 
midst of camps, but there is some. I was glad to know 
that you had sent home for a book. You will not have 
much opportunity to read, for you cannot procure the nec- 
essary books, but you will have ample opportunity to exer- 
cise your reason upon events passing around you. I don't 
mean to invite you to throw yourself into the invidious at- 
titude of a young critic, but to cultivate a habit of exercis- 
ing your reason and drawing conclusions from the great 
events and scenes in which you will be moving ; and, by all 
means, cultivate the habit of reducing your thoughts (what- 
ever course they may take) to writing and sending them 
home to your friends. After all, there is no process, for 
training and developing the intellect, equal to writing. 
Lord Bacon said, " Reading makes a full man, conversation 
a ready man, and writing an acairatc man." I shall always 
be glad to get letters from you myself; but I need not as- 
sure you that my motive in advising you to write is not a 
selfish one. Form the habit of trying to understand all you 
hear, all you read, and all you see, not excepting the plans 
and military movements of your great leader in arms. 
There is nothing presumptuous in your endeavoring to un- 
derstand them all, and the cultivation of the habit, and the 
comparison of your antecedent conclusions with subsequent 
events, will soon render the study both pleasant and profit- 
able to you. Better occupy your thoughts in this way than 
let them dwindle and dry up. A well-occupied intellect is 



278 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

the best security for a sound and happy heart. I shall not 
undertake to give you a word of news, for Ben can tell you 
more in an hour than I would with you in a day. I think 
of you very often, and never without a fervent aspiration to 
God to preserve you through all your dangers, and to 
lighten all your privations and toils with a good conscience 
and cheerful spirit. I commend you to some verses which 
I take from Burns' epistle to a young friend. The senti- 
ments are noble, and expressed with much force and beauty. 

Good-bye, and may God bless you. 

Your friend, Linton Stephens. 

"The fear o' hell's a hangman's whip, 

To hand the wretch in order, 
But where you feel your honour grip, 
• Let that aye be your border — 

Its slightest touches, instant pause, 

Debar a' side pretenses. 
And resolutely keep its laws, 

Uncaring consequences. 

"The great Creator \.o revere 

Must sure become the creature ; 
But still the preaching cant forbear. 

And ev'n the rigid feature; 
Yet, ne'er with wits profane to range. 

Be complaisance extended, 
An Atheist's laugh's a poor exchange 

For Deity offended. 

"When ranting round in pleasure's ring, 

Religion may be blinded, 
Or if she gie a random sting. 

It may be little minded ; 
But when on life we're tempest-driv'n, 

A conscience but a canker, 
A correspondence fix'd wi' heav'n 

Is sure a noble anchor." 



[From L. S. to A. H. S.] 

Atlanta, June 4, 1864. 

Dear Brother — Joe Myers told me, yesterday morning, 
that he left you better the night before, and I hope you are 
as well as usual by this time. I am writing now in the 
Governor's office. It is a rainy, muddy morning. I am 
told that it'rained nearly all night last night. I slept in a 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 279 

room SO remote from the outer world that I had no idea 
what the elements were doing until daylight gave me a view 
through the window. I then found things very much in 
the same state as they now are at 8)^ o'clock a. m. Char- 
ley DuBose and I slept in the same bed in the printing- 
room of his brother-in-law, Richards. We have a mattress 
on a bedstead, and do very well. The night before last, 
the Governor and I slept in the same bed, out at General 
P'oster's, two miles in the country. The Governor's head- 
quarters, or his lodgings, are at Colonel Erskine's. He in- 
vited me to go and share his bed with him there last night, 
but I declined. After this, Dick Johnston and I will occu- 
py the bed in the printing-office, and Charley will sleep 
with Richards in the back room of Richards' book-store. 
You may infer, from all this piling up in sleeping, going, 
as it does, to the extent of causing even the Governor to 
sleep double, that this city is very much crowded. Not so, 
however. Its quietness, on the contrary, is a striking feat- 
ure in comparison with its condition last fall during the ex- 
citement of the Chickamauga fight. I judge, from appear- 
ances in the city, that General Johnston has very few idlers 
and dodgers in the rear. The newspaper accounts of the 
multitudes of refugees crowded here are monstrous exag- 
gerations. I want no better evidence than a walk through 
the streets here. I can't help suspecting that the repre- 
sentations which have been made on this point were a trick 
to get people to send provisions into this place. This has 
been the effect. Our Hancock people sent up a lot of pro- 
visions for refugees. John T. Martin and John Little ar- 
rived here with the Hancock cargo yesterday morning. In 
the lot brought by them were fifty pounds of flour contrib- 
uted by me. After seeing the state of things here, I felt 
as if I had been sold. I am messing with the Governor's 
staff. Dick Johnston, Charley DuBose, Hidell, Colonel 
Fulton, Colonel Mobley (of Harris) and myself comprise 
our mess. We draw rations from the State and turn them 
over to an old gentleman in town by the name of'Mitchell. 
He takes our rations and charges us four dollars a day 
apiece for board at his table. He gives us very good plain 
fare, and we all like the arrangement very well. I do not 
expect to take up quarters at the camp here ; but when the 
troops move forward to the front, I shall go with them as a, 



280 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

private in the ranks. I had every reason to believe that, if 
I would only permit the use of my name, I would be elected 
brigadier-general without opposition. Colonel Carswell, of 
Jefferson, who has been elected in the first brigade, sent 
me special word that if I would say I would serve, he would 
not be a candidate. Soon after my arrival here, I became 
convinced, and I have not doubted since, that I could have 
been elected with great ease ; but I have not doubted that 
I have done right in declining. I have kept pretty well 
since I have been here. Did you find a letter which I left 
on your table for you? It is a letter which I had mailed 
to you at Richmond, and got back out of the post-office 
after getting your announcement that you had got back 
home. I pulled it out of my pocket and laid it on the 
table while we were talking. I intended, at the time, to 
tell you of it, but forgot it. I see there has been further 
and heavier fighting between Lee and Grant. I am very 
sorry to hear of Doles' death. I reckon poor Dick Greene 
had to run the gauntlet once more ; or, was he not in the 
hospital when he wrote to you ? I believe he was ; but, 
whether or not, I trust that he is still safe. I have just 
this moment received and read your letter of yesterday. 
I am very much relieved at hearing that you were better, 
and that your pains were rheumatic. Rheumatism in the 
bowels, proper, is itself a dangerous affection, but I think, 
by some remarks dropped by you, that yours is in the ab- 
dominal muscles, and not in the bowels. Your little 
shower that you received with apparent gratification sinks 
into insignificance when compared with our rains here. 
Rain, rain, rain — it still rains ! Dick has somewhere picked 
up the last volume of " Les Miserables," and I have been 
reading it. It is now at my bed-room, but I shall go and 
get it, rain or no rain, as soon as I finish my letter; for I 
am very much in want of something to do. I Should like 
very much to be at home ; but I am not discontented. . . 
I am not in a complaining mood this morning, nor in a par- 
ticularly unhappy state, but I see about as little light under 
the political clouds as I do under the murky, physical 
ones that envelop us. I know the latter will in time give 
way to renewed sunshine; will the former ever have a like 
blessed sequel ? Not in my day, at least. General Smith 
is expected here to-day to take charge of the State troops, 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 28 1 

and the Governor has telegraphed General Johnston that 
they will be ready for him in a few days. I believe he 
said "two or three days." Now, my own opinion is that 
they will not be ready to move as soon as the Governor 
thinks, for I have seen enough of organizing to know that 
there is always more delay than anybody expects ; but I 
have no doubt but that they will be sent to the front pretty 
soon. I doubt, from all I hear, whether there will be any 
early engagement between Johnston and Sherman ; but they 
are having fighting there every day — sometimes pretty 
heavy 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, Septerr.ber 15, 1864. 

Dear Brother — Strange, 

strange, passing strange that the rulers and wise men of the 
world should be so inattentive, if not so profoundly igno- 
rant, concerning a history which, in my judgment, teaches 
the profoundest wisdom in a light which, from its very 
clearness, is at once splendid and fascinating. What a 
splendid illustration Mr. Calhoun could have drawn from 
this history for his theory of concurrent majorities and nul- 
lification as a peaceful remedy ! By the way, I think Mr. 
Calhoun, while he was the soundest and most philosophical 
expounder of our system, was exceedingly unfortunate in 
his nomenclature. The phrase ' ' concurrent majorities " fails 
to convey a clear idea of what he meant by it ; but, worst 
of all, it loses a great element of popularity which would 
have been found in the true and accurate statement. A 
government of the people — that is to say, of the whole 
people, or a liberal approximation of the whole, in oppo- 
sition to a government of a fragment of the people, even 
though that fragment might reach a majority of the whole — 
a government wherein every State, each State constitut- 
ing, in the main, a homogeneous people, with identical 
interests, should have security for life, liberty and property, 
dependent not upon the will of any one man, or number of 
men, on the face of the earth, but solely upon its fidelity 
to itself — a government without power to oppress any in- 
terest, because every interest would have the power of self- 
protection — a government, therefore, disarmed of all inter- 
28 



282 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

nal aggressive power, and fulfilling the requisites of a model 
government by being confined to the sole legitimate office 
of government — that is, affording security to its memoers 
by restraining aggressions upon their rights. But church 

time has come, and I must suspend 

I think the term "nullification" equally unfortunate, or 
more so, for it conveys di false idea of its real meaning — or 
rather, of the sense in which Mr. Calhoun used it — and that 
false idea was the greatest obstruction to its acceptance 
among the people. There is a real difference, and a still 
greater popular difference between annulling a law which 
has passed through all the forms of the law-making power, 
and interfering to prevent the final passage of a law. One 
house of the Legislature rejects a bill which has passed the 
other, or the President rejects it after it has passed both, 
and it never becomes a law. So after it has passed all 
three of these, it may be rejected by the interposition of 
any one of the sovereign States; and such a rejection as 
this is not so much a departure from popular government 
as the rejection, which we have confessedly in our system 
is — the rejection, by one man. It ought to have been called 
the veto pozvcr of the States, and never the right of nullifica- 
tion — a veto not provided for expressly in the Constitution, 
it is true, but resulting necessarily from the fact that sov- 
ereign States are the parties to it, and forming, therefore, 
a part of our system of government, and being no more 
revolutionary in its exercise than in the exercise of the 
veto power on the part of the President, and intended, 
like that, to be an additional check upon legislation ; that 
is to say, an additional security in the hands of every State 
against aggression from the rest. When you go further 
and draw the very clear distinction which there is (but 
which Mr. Calhoun failed to make sufficiently plain) be- 
tween one State governing all the rest, and preventing 
them simply from governing her, you would, I think, go 
a great way in relieving this much-abused theory from the 
demagogical misrepresentations which make it odious by 
making it misunderstood. All fair-minded men will desire 
a government which, while it withholds their own hands 
from aggressions upon others, secures them also from ag- 
gressions by others. Wise men will see still further that 
there can be no reliable protection to any without protec- 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 283 

tion to all ; or, in other words, that any system whose pro- 
tection does not extend to all interests cannot be reliable 
and steadfast for any. I could write page after page on 
this subject, but the brief outline which I have given will 
be sufficient to give you a full understanding of my 
ideas, and that is all I wish. Before I pass entirely away, 
however, I will say that I consider all the talk which speak- 
ers and writers (including Mr. Calhoun) have held on the 
subject of the "social compact" is sho-QV fiction. There is 
no such thing as "social compact" — never was, and never 
can be. It is as pure a fiction as the common law doctrine 
of a superse-assumpsit is, and a much more useless one. 
Indeed, I think it has been the source of serious mischiefs. 
The common law supposes every man to promise to do cer- 
tain duties, and there is no harm in this, since the fiction 
is used merely to furnish the form of a remedy for the 
breach of those duties ; but what possible use can there be 
in supposing that mankind, or any part of them, ever agreed 
to form society ? 

Mr. Calhoun himself says, very justly, that society is the 
natural state of man — that all men are born into it. How, 
then, can he talk, as he does talk in his debate with Mr. 
Webster, about the social compact being the foundation of 
society? My idea of it is that all things, including man, 
are under an obligation, imposed upon them by the Creator 
for their own good, to live according to their own nature; 
that is to say, to live so as to attain the greatest possible 
development of their natural gifts. Society is the natural 
state of man ; he can do nothing in any other situation, 
and this is the ground of his obligation to maintain society — 
not any promise or agreement to do so, for none such was 
ever made. Society cannot be maintained without govern- 
ment, and, therefore, the maintenance of government, of 
some sort, rests on the same foundation of natural obliga- 
tion, and not on any fictitious compact. There is no compact, 
no agreement among men in relation either to society or 
to government, until you come to what is properly called 
the constitution of government. This is indeed a compact 
which creates obligations correspondent to its provisions ; but 
it is not a compact to support either society or government 
in general ; it is a compact to support the particular gov- 
ernment established by it. Society and government are 



284 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

ordained by God, as is shown by their manifest necessity 
to the nature with which He has formed mankind ; but the 
particular forms of either are a very different affair. There 
is no room for difference of opinion on the first proposition, 
and accordingly, we find that all mankind, in all ages, and 
under all circumstances, have had society and government, 
but not so as to the form of either, best suited to different por- 
tions of the human family. I think, however, it is easy to 
prove that, for a people who are sufficiently enlightened to 
understand it, the best possible form of government is that 
which arms every interest in the society with the power of 
self-protection. The very reason which renders govern- 
ment a necessity is the selfishness of men, leading them to 
aggrandize themselves at the expense of others, and this 
reason requires the remedy to go to the extent of having 
every part of the society protected against all the rest. 
How can this possibly be so well effected as by giving every 
interest the power of self-protection ? With an cu/ightened 
people, this would be the perfection of the science of gov- 
ernment 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, October 13, 1864. 

I have seen Burke's review of your letter. The answer 
which you make to him, in a letter which I got from you 
the other day, is not the right one, as it seems to me. The 
consent of the two governments does not relieve your pro- 
posed convention of States from the objection of unconsti- 
tutionality. I don't mean to say that I think your plan is 
really obnoxious to that objection, but I don't think the 
consent of the two governments has any bearing on that 
point. The prohibition against compacts or agreements 
between States is not at all applicable to your plan. You 
don't propose to form any compact or agreements between 
States ; you simply propose to interchange views, and, if 
possible, to unite, not in a compact, but in a plan to be 
submitted to the States for ratification, or rather for adop- 
tion. You expressly negative any binding authority in 
the convention, confining its action to simple conference 
and recommendation. So much for the convention. When 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 28$ 

you get one step further, and propose to the States a 
scheme of peace which may involve the termination of the 
existing government, as the convention might do, the case 
assumes a new aspect ; but the proposed action would not 
be unconstitutional unless secession was so. I don't be- 
lieve that secession was unconstitutional, nor do I believe 
it would be unconstitutional to take the proposed action. 
If the scheme of peace proposed should contemplate a 
subversion of the existing government, its adoption by any 
State would, it is true, terminate the operation of the Con- 
stitution in that State; but the right of each State to do 
this whenever she pleases is the foundation-stone of our 
government. It would not be a question of carrying on the 
government, consistently with the Constitution, but it 
would be a putting of the new government upon trial, 
as we have already put the old one on trial and de- 
cided against its continuance. To carry on the govern- 
ment according to the Constitution is one thing — to de- 
cide whether the government shall be continued or not is 
a very different thing. The consent of the government 
doesn't seem to me to touch this question o^ constitutionality. 
The consent of the two governments is very desirable, 
but not at all necessary to cure any unconstitutionality. 
There is no unconstitutionality ; and if there was any, their 
consent couldn't cure it. This reminds me to remark upon 
a new idea which is passing current without a challenge 
from any quarter, so far as I have seen, but which is full 
of error and mischief: I mean the idea that all the States 
of our Confederacy are forbidden, by good faith, to secede 
from it during the war. Whence comes this obligation of 
V fafth ? Where is the pledge that would be broken by se- 
' cession? How can the question be affected by the state of 
war? Shall it be said there is an implied understanding on 
the part of all to abide the common fortune ? To abide it 
how long? Forever? Then secession has ceased forever 
as a rightful resort. During the war? Then our rulers 
may defeat the right as long as they choose by prolonging 
the war. There can be but one sound view on this subject. 
It is gratuitous to be implying obligations when the Con- 
stitution was intended as the expression of all that were 
assumed. Those people who prate about the bad faith of 
breaking pledges, which can nowhere be found, are the 



286 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

same who defend the government in breaking its most spe- 
cific and formal promises. It is a cant invented to serve 
the purpose of usurpation and consolidation. It is an arti- 
fice of power to perpetuate itself, and to deny all principles 
which can imperil its existence. It is a lie, a cheat, and a 
delusion. It is the right of all States to quit associations, 
and form new ones whenever they please. It is a right 
which is truly inalienable, which cannot be surrendered 
even by the most solemn constitutional compact, for the 
power to bargain it away involves the power to alter the 
rights of mankind. To admit that any generation can be 
barred from this right by the action of predecessors is to 
deny the right itself in toto. The essence of the right con- 
sists in making the change whenever the people please. 
Such is the right. Its exercise can be justified only by con- 
siderations of national interest, and is always proper when 
interest justifies it. In other words, there can be no such 
thing as power or good faith in conflict with the tnLC inter- 
est of either nations or individuals. True interest and 
power always pull in the .same direction 

When the Federal army, under General Sherman, ap- 
proached the capitol at Milledgeville, in 1864, the General 
Assembly was in session. The panic the intelligence pro- 
duced was very great ; nor was it confined exclusively to 
the citizens of the city. A large number of members of 
the Legislature shared it with them. Vehicles of every 
description were in urgent demand ; the most fabulous 
prices were paid for every sort, from the gentleman's coaj:h 
down to the clumsiest and most unsightly ox-cart. Gov- 
ernor Brown, in view of the near approach of the Federal 
army, and consequent dispersion of the Legislature, sent a 
message to the General Assembly, officially communicating 
the intelligence already so appallingly known to the mem- 
bers individually, wherein he submitted to their judgment 
the necessity, or propriety, of adopting some measure which 
would authorize him to exercise extra constitutional or dis- 
cretionary powers in certain emergencies, until the Legis- 
lature should re-convene. The message was immediately 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 287 

taken up in the Senate, and the recommendation, or sug- 
gestion therein contained, adopted by that body; nem. con. , 
or nearly so. It was forthwith transmitted to the House, 
and immediately taken up for action. Judge Stephens at 
once rose and opposed its adoption in a thirty minutes' 
speech of superlative power and eloquence. Its effect was 
electrical and crushing. After making a noble plea for "a 
government of laws and not of men," he concluded by say- 
ing, in substance: 

"I, sir, have been denounced by some mistaken, but 
doubtless well-meaning men, as an enemy to the admin- 
istration of the Confederate government, because I op- 
posed those of its measures, which, in my judgment, in- 
volved unconstitutional stretches of power, dangerous 
alike to the success of our common cause and to popular 
liberty. Time will determine whether they or I are the 
better friends to the administration — I, who warn it of the 
rocks and breakers ahead that will wreck it, or they, who, 
if they have eyes to see, see not, or tongues to speak, speak 
only to flatter or deceive. It has been said that I am a foe 
to President Davis. That is not true. It has been said I 
am the friend of Governor Brown. That is true. It is also 
true that I warmly espoused his side of the controversy with 
the President on the subjects of conscription, impressment, 
etc. Why? Because, Governor Brown was right. Pres- 
ident Davis was wrong, in my humble judgment — no per- 
sonal feeling, one way or the other, lent bias to that judg- 
ment. Governor Brown was right in that controversy: in 
the measure now before the House, he is wrong. I ivant 
no master! I am the political friend of no man, of no man — 
freeman! alack! who is ready to accept a master! be he 
Abe Lincoln, or Jeff. Davis, or Joe Brown, or anybody 
else! I am the friend of citizen-liberty,, of rational, consti- 
tutional liberty, to-day, to-morrow and forever! And be- 
fore I support any measure authorizing, by any possibility, 



288 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

the exercise of powers so monstrous and so dangerous to 
that Hberty as those contemplated in the resokitions on 
your table ; or before I stand by any man who would, if he 
could, by any semblance of authority, exercise such pow- 
ers, may my right hand forget her cunning and my tongue 
cleave to the roof of my mouth ! No, sir — never ! I would 
perish sooner. If I am to have a master, he must forge 
the chains ; I will never hold out my hands to take on the 
accursed manacles ! " 

The Hon. L. N. Trammell, who was a member of the 
House, and to whom I am indebted for the incident, pro- 
nounced that speech the grandest outburst of fervid, patri- 
otic, pent-up, indignant eloquence he ever heard uttered. 
The resolution was tabled without a division. 

When the awful curtain fell upon the scene of surrender 
at Appomattox, the last hope of the Confederacy was lost. 
Nothing was left to the Confederates but to secure the best 
terms they could with their successful adversary. Of course, 
it was a question, of a few days only, how long the small but 
heroic army of General Johnston could continue the strug- 
gle against the combined forces of Grant and Sherman. 
The stipulations of Johnston's surrender, as set forth in the 
Sherman-Johnston convention, were alike honorable to the 
patriotism and magnanimity of both, and reflect credit alike 
upon the spirit of the warrior and the sagacity of the states- 
man. The work of that convention was, after the surren- 
der of the army, with all its appointments and equipments, 
ignored and repudiated by Andrew Johnson, who had just 
acceded to the presidency of the United States, in conse- 
quence of the ever-to-be-lamented assassination of Mr. Lin- 
coln. Mr. Johnson lived long enough to regret — if his sub- 
sequent political course may be regarded as testimony — 
that he put his foot upon that basis of settlement — not the 
reconstruction, but the reconciliation of the States. The effects 
of that rejection — or rather, of that ignorition, (if I may be 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 289 

allowed to coin a word,) are felt now; and happy it will be 
if all their traces shall be wiped out ere many years yet to 
come "be numbered with those before the flood." 

For several years, Judge Stephens was a member of the 
Presbyterian Church ; he, however, dissolved his connec- 
tion therewith — not because his faith in the truth of Chris- 
tianity had in any degree abated, but because he had lost 
faith in so many who called themselves Christian men. The 
contrast between their practice and their profession was too 
marked and too wide for his charity to cover; for this rea- 
son, coupled with the additional one, that he did not en- 
tirely subscribe to all the tenets, rites and ordinances of any 
of the denominations, he quit the fellowship. In February, 
1866, he gives this partial epitome of his religious faith, in 
a letter to a female friend : 

I think I am very nearly, if not 

quite, devoid of religious prejudices I believe 

in Christ as the Son of God and the Saviour of men. I be- 
lieve He was made man for our Teacher and Pattern, and 
that His teachings and life should receive implicit obedi- 
ence and imitation, so far as God may, with propriety and 
without offense, be imitated by men. While I believe all 
this, yet I confess to you frankly, that I have never been 
able to believe that any one of the many organizations, 
claiming each for itself to be His peculiar and exclusive 
representative on earth, is either altogether bad or alto- 
gether good. I can but regard them all as partaking of the 
infirmities of the poor human beings who compose them. 



Judge Stephens suffered intensely at times from dyspep- 
sia. It was his physical demon — his thorn in the flesh. 
His occasional fits of depression — of melancholy — some- 
times augmented into moroseness, which none but those 
who knew him with some degree of intimacy could well ac- 
count for — are attributable to that cause. 

To the same friend, he writes: 



290 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

Sparta, February 12, 1866. 

You were perfectly right, my 

friend, in saying that I ought to be back in , I have 

never been so well off since I left there as I was while there ; 
and this leads me to incur the horrible risk of boring you 
(this idea of being a bore at all, particularly of being a bore 
to you, is intolerable) by giving you some account of my 
Jicalth. Do you know what dyspepsia is ? I hope you do 
not. I really think it is the worst bodily (ah ! and mental) 
affliction I ever endured. About five years ago, I was an 
intense sufferer from it. The horror of it must be felt to be 
understood. The deep melancholy ; the constant /^r//;/^'- of 
being on the verge of paralysis, and of consequent imbecil- 
ity; the profound disgust with life, petulance which con- 
stantly disgusts one with his ov^^n littleness ; the waking up 
twenty times in a night with a sense of deadness in your 
limbs, and with a sense that if you had waked one moment 
later, you must have died instantly — can you begin to con- 
ceive of it, my friend? I believe a dyspeptic must have 
written these lines : 

"But, ah ! life's beauty and its pride, 

Its freshness and its light, 
Have fled, and little left beside 

But weariness and blight." 

By the way, do you know these lines? You must have 
seen them, but I trust and believe that you have never 
known them. I have. I will only mention one other very 
distressing peculiarity of this horrible visitation : the utter 
incapacity for any prolonged mental exertion. Well, I re- 
covered ; I never felt, however, that I was in possession of 
■good health again until last fall, during my sojourn in the 

glorious climate of , and at a distance from cares, 

and in the midst of friends who made the time pass so de- 
lightfully. Then I regained my health fully, and "Rich- 
ard" felt that he was "himself again." Now, what I have 
to tell you farther is, that I have, to a very considerable 
extent, relapsed into that old "slough of despond." This 
attack is not so decided as the old one ; and then there are 
now many mitigating surroundings ; for you must remem- 
ber that the great horror consists in the effect upon the 
viind — upon its fears and affections, and upon its natural 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 29 1 

clinging to life. In the first place, it is no mean advantage 
to have the experience of having passed through all this 
before. In the next place, a man who has lost a country, 
lost thousands of warm friends in the mismanagement of a 
holy cause ; who has seen human blood poured out like 
great rivers, yet poured in vain — such a man vinst have a 
very diminished appreciation of the value of any one poor 
life, even if that one happens to be his own. Such an ex- 
perience necessarily reduces a man's capacity for misery. 
I do not say this in a spirit of sardonic defiance, but in the 
sober spirit of comforting philosophy — that same old phi- 
losophy which discovered that a fellow at the bottom of 
fortune's wheel has at least one advantage from the situa- 
tion — the sense of security against anything worse. Well, 
the "murder is out" now. I have never written so much 
as this at any one time before in my life, to any one person, 
on the subject of my own ailments. I have talked it some- 
times during the days of my horrors, but then I could reg- 
ulate the quantity by my observations on the patience 01 
the listener. I have thrown myself utterly upon your 
mercy, trusting somewhat to your generosity, as well as to 
the warmth and truth of your friendship. But, my friend, 
don't you believe but what I shall get well again. I should 
get over it very soon if I could control my own time, as I 
hope to do soon; but that I have not been able to do for a 
long time past. You have no idea how I am constantly 
pressed and annoyed by people who come to me for advice 
and assistance in these terrible times ; but be assured that 
I am preserving a reasonable patience, even under the tor- 
tures of a disease which tries one's patience in a peculiar 
degree. They are my fellow-sufferers in a noble cause, and 
that memory invests them with a respect which is not al- 
ways due to their personal worth. I hope to be able to 
take a little recreation soon, and run away from trouble for 
a while and get well again 

To another female friend, he writes : 

Sparta, March i8, 1866. 

After finishing and sealing up 

my letter of last night, I have remembered to return to you 



292 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

brother's letter which sent me. I cannot let it pass 

by without telling you how profoundly I am gratified at the 
good understanding and cordial relations which now seem 
to be established between those whom I love best. There 
is between you and dear brother a great deal more in com- 
mon than you have even yet suspected. With a very 
marked simplicity of character in most respects, he still has 
a peculiar reserve which has never been entirely penetrated 
by anybody but me, and perhaps not entirely even by me. 
He has been an extraordinary sufferer — mental as well as 
physical — and I am sure he has never confided the nature 
of his keenest mental sufferings to anybody but me. I 
would tell you all about it if I could do so without a breach 
of confidence. I will only add that he has come out con- 
queror over all his sufferings, and has at last ceased to suffer 
from the one great cause. He has a deep, intense nature, 
but long, and patient, and watchful self discipline has ob- 
tained the mastery over it. He now moves along — for 
years has moved along — in peace and contentment, with 
eye, and heart, and soul fixed steadily on the things which 
lie beyond the dark, cold river. His earthly affections are 
warm and pare, and, in one instance, very strong; but they 
are all subordinated to duty and to Heaven. His religion 
is very beautiful, and forms a large part of the present man. 
It is exceedingly modest, almost shrinking from all human 
observation ; but it is very deep and very constant. He 
does not know that I am aware of this ; and if I were to tell 
him of it, it would be like the sudden dropping of a great 
stone into a deep, quiet, shady pool. He has never talked 
much to me about religion, and still less to other people ; 
what I know of his religion has been gathered chiefly from 
my habit of putting things together in connections, which 
sometimes brings true light out of them — sed satis. . . . 



After the election of Mr. A. H. Stephens to the United 
States Senatorship by the General Assembly of 1865-66, he 
was granted pcnnission to visit the federal capital. His Fort 
Warren parole had previously restricted the theater of his 
movements to the State of Georgia. From Washington 
City, he wrote his brother: 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 293 

[From A, H. S. to L. S. ] 

Washington, D. C, April 8, 1866. 

Dear Brother — The President 

received me with frankness, and I may say cordiahty. The 
cabinet received me as cordially as any cabinet ever did. 
All sides — Democrats and Republicans, Conservatives and 
Radicals — seemed glad to see me. General Grant seems to 
be very marked in his regards for me. He is a most extra- 
ordinary man in some respects. The invitation given me 
to spend the evening with him, to which I alluded in my 
other letter, I did not understand exactly at first. It was 
the evening of one of his receptions. There was a very 
large company. President Johnson was there — the first in- 
stance of a President of the United States ever going out 
into society, as it may be termed, or accepting an invitation 
to join a party of friends on such an occasion as this. I was 
much entertained at two things I witnessed there — or rath- 
er, one thing and two reflections on it : that was that Gen- 
eral Grant and the President seemed a little awkward, or 
not at ease, in the characters they were acting. They both 
seemed to be out of their element. This, in Grant, I was 
pleased at ; but somehow I would have preferred to see the 
President more graceful and elegant — or rather, more at 
ease in his manners. Everything, however, passed off very 
w^ell and very agreeably. There was a perfect jam and a 
great array of fashion and court-style. I send you two slips — 
one from the Hei'ald and one from the Times correspond- 
ents — giving an account of it. The longest one is from the 
Herald. My own opinion is that I was moi'e looked at than 
any man present, and more talked to, though I did en- 
deavor to keep in the back-ground. Sir Frederick Bruce 
sought an introduction to me. I give this as an illustration 
of the state of things. He is a gentleman of fine personal 
appearance, and talks well. I declined to see him on his 
visit to Fort Warren. Mr. Burlingame told me Sir Freder- 
ick wished to see me when he was there, and Major Liver- 
more said if I would signify a request to see him, under his 
orders, he would allow it. I told Mr. Burlingame that it might 
not be approved at Washington, as I was a State-prisoner and 
he a foreign minister, etc. , and no such interview had been 
anticipated or thought of when he had been permitted to 



294 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

visit the fort, or when I had been permitted to see such 
friends as I might desire. Sir Frederick alluded, the other 
night, to his visit to Fort Warren, and his desire then to 
see me, etc., but did not disclose any knowledge, on his 
part, of my agency in his not succeeding. 

But I find my letter becoming too long. You wish, 
doubtless, to know what I think of things here. Well, I 
think of them just about as I did before I got here. Noth- 
ing will be done towards the admission of Southern mem- 
bers this session. This question will most probably be de- 
cided by the next fall elections. The most radical men in 
Congress — the most rabid — talk with me heartily, freely and 
fully, and I think I may say, almost unanimously, would 
prefer to see me in the Senate to any other man from the 
South — or, at least, they say so. So my election has cer- 
tainly done the State no harm in this particular. The point 
on which they are going to rally is a proposition to amend 
the Constitution on the suffrage question — to allow admis- 
sion to those States which will agree to an amendment al- 
lowing representation on the ratio of votes. This will be, I 
think, the Radical platform for the next fall elections, and 
I need not say that I think it will be rather a dangerous 
platform for us before the Northern people. How easily 
this might have been avoided by the Southern people in 
allowing a wisely-restricted suffrage to the black race in 
their new Constitutions ! This proposition, however, ema- 
nates from no real philanthropic sentiment for the negro. 
It is, when sifted to the bottom, founded upon nothing but 
a desire for power. It is not believed that the Southern 
States will grant suffrage under it to the black race, even if 
it should be adopted. The object is to deprive the South 
of political power, and to leave the poor, unfortunate sons 
of Africa, as our fellow-citizens, to their fate. 

I called to see Senator Wilson yesterday. This was in 
discharge of an act of duty for his personal kindness to me 
while in prison. He introduced Mrs. Wilson to me at Gen- 
eral Grant's party; I, therefore, called to see both of them. 
We had a long, pleasant talk, differing widely on many 
points, but agreeably, I got a letter, a day or two ago, 

from Mrs. S . She is in Baltimore, and I shall go 

over to see her in a few days. She will continue or remain 
there next, or rather this week. I shall try and prevail on 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 295 

her to go on with me to Georgia. I now think I shall start 
home the latter part of the week. That, though, is uncer- 
tain. Many urge me to remain here, and if I see any pros- 
pect of doing good by it, I may do so ; but, really, I do 
not now see that I can do more good than I shall do by the 
latter part of this week. By that time, my views will be 
very generally known. The loss of the Civil Rights bill — 
or rather, the passage of that bill, in the Senate, over the 
veto — might have been prevented. I cannot go into par- 
ticulars now — one more vote would have sustained the veto. 
The vote stood 33 to 15 — 48 voting. The whole Senate 
now is 50; but Stockton having been turned out leaves a 
full Senate — 49. Dixon, of Connecticut, was sick in his 
room, and would have voted, making the vote 33 to 16. 
That would have sustained the veto, under the understand- 
ing of the Senate. By that understanding, it required 17 
votes when the whole vote was 49 ; but I think differently. 
If Dixon had voted, as he would have done if he had 
thought that his vote would have prevented the passage of 
the bill, the vote would have stood, 33 yeas to 16 nays, 
making 49 in all; 33 is not two-thirds of 49. The general 
opinion was that it would take 17 votes to sustain the veto, 
and he did not go to the Senate. But I think 16 would 
have done it. The bill, I have no doubt, will pass the 
House. I don't attach any great importance to this meas- 
ure. It will not affect Georgia, I think, or any other State 
that has done as she has. I have not read the bill care- 
fully; but this is my understanding of it: the great error of 
the bill is the principle assumed in its passage, the jurisdic- 
tion claimed by Congress, etc 

To his intimate friend, Samuel Barnett, Judge Stephens 
writes, May 25, 1866: 

[ From L. S. to Samuel Barnett, Esq. ] 

Dear Sam — You are, of course, aware of what decision 
Judge Reese has made in our insurance case. Mr. Hull 
acquiesces in it, and has sent me the money — three thou- 
sand and sixty dollars — which I have paid over to Mrs. 
Stanford, reserving five hundred as counsel-fees. Is this 
enough? I am sure it is not too much; and yet, I felt 



296 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

equally sure that, in taking a fee from a poor widow, you 
would trust our joint interest to my sense of proper charity. 
That is really my only apology for not consulting you be- 
fore fixing the fee. In a similar case, I should expect you 
to do just as I have done. The money was in hand and 
the woman wanted it — not only desired it, but needed it. 
If you had been at hand, I certainly should have consulted 
you before paying it over, and fixing our fees ; but as you 
were not present, and sometime required to hear from you, 
why, I just did as I would have you do in such a case — I 
acted for both of us ; and, as I have begun to play dictator, 
I believe I will run the part through, and tell you that your 
half of it is in my hands, subject to your order. What shall 
I do with it? We are all well as usual, and I hope you and 
yours are so, too. I saw your two boys, the other day, out 
at Dick's school. The eldest is a very close copy of you. 
I was pleased to make their acquaintance, and pleased at 
the air with which they greeted me. It plainly told that 
they knew they were grasping the hand of their father's 
friend, and that they had no doubt of a cordial reception 
for his sake. 

Most truly yours, 

Linton Stephens. 

P. S. — Did I tell you I had found Underwood's answer? 
I am awfully afraid we shall never get any fee in that case 
beyond the tobacco which I have already got out of him. 
You don't smoke? Well, then, you will get no "half" in 
this business. L. S. 

The next extract from one of his letters not only discloses 
his method of reading an author, but illustrates a prominent 
feature of his intellectual character : 

[From L. S. to a female friend.] 

June 6, 1866. 

You say you know I love study ; 

and so I do in my own way ; but I have a horror of details 
and minutiae. I love to group facts into large generaliza- 
tions, but the plodding after small facts, which have no sig- 
nificance, save in the brains of heated enthusiasts, is irk- 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 297 

some and impossible to me beyond conception. I scarcely 
ever read any book entire, except those I read purely for 
entertainment. When I am studying to master a subject, 
I wouldn't read all that any one man in the world ever 
wrote on it, if he wrote much. When I am studying, I am 
a terrible fellow to skip pages, and often chapters. I want, 
first, the grand outlines, and then I will call for such fillings 
up as I need; and a great deal of the filling up, which is 
almost always considered essential by those who write 
books, I never do heed, and, therefore, cannot very pa- 
tiently tolerate 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

July, 1866. 
Dear Brother — We got home yesterday, before sunset, 
all right. As we were entering the yard-gate, I remarked 
to Becky, who was in the buggy with me, that it seemed 
that she and her little sisters ought to be running to meet 
me, and that a return home without a welcome or joyous 
greeting from somebody or other was a sad thing. Little 
did I then know how complete the lack of a welcome would 
be when we drove up in front of the door. Cosby was sit- 
ting on the colonnade, reading Shakspeare. Tlie little 
ones cried out, "How d'ye, Mr. Connel?" before they got 
out of tlie carriage, and then hurried to shake hands with 
him. He slowly laid aside his book and spectacles, and 
gave them a very hearty greeting. He and they were soon 
deeply immersed in the exchange of news, and he gave no 
indication of being at all aware of my being out in the yard. 
None of the servants came to meet us. As Henry was 
with us to take the horses, my thoughts turned on Pompey, 
whose habit was to rarely fail in giving his welcome on my 
return home, and my eye went in search of him, but found 
him not. I felt uneasy, but said not a word to anybody. 
Presently, the little ones, who got the news from Cosby, 
came running out, and told me that Pompey was dead. I 
almost reeled, as if somebody had struck me a blow. Poor 
old Pompey, then, would never welcome me any more! 
Dead ! and buried out of my sight forever ! The first thought 
was for the poor old dog himself — the next for myself; the 
realization of how rapidly the things which love me were 
passing away shot through my heart with a keen and sud- 
29 



298 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

den pang! There are very few people in this world who 
would believe how much I was affected by the fate of a dog — 
a mere dog — nothing but a dog! He was, nevertheless, a 
great deal to me. I do almost mourn and grieve for the 

poor old fellow ! I never was 

so much affected by any death outside of my own race — 
not even in the warm and tender-hearted days of my child- 
hood. My poor old dog! my poor old dog! If he was a 
spirit still existing, and cognizant- of the scene from which 
his body has departed, he feels to-day a grateful pleasure 
in the tears which his beloved master is shedding over his 
grave. I could have better spared many more valuable 
things. ''' 

[From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

Crawfordville, July 24, 1866. 

Dear Brother — I am now read- 
ing Napoleon's "Julius Caesar." The book is a very dif- 
ferent one from what I expected. It is in two volumes. 
The first one I have not quite got through with yet. It is 
taken up with an epitome of the History of Rome up to the 
time of Caesar's figuring in it. I like it very much. It is 
connected and clear, and, above all, what is agreeable to 
me, it gives the dates, as it goes along, from the founding 
of the city. It exhibits more learning than I should have 
supposed Napoleon to possess ; the citation of authorities 
is more numerous than in any history I ever read, and a 
good portion of the pages is filled in this way. The paper 
upon which it is published is thick and heavy, making the 
volumes cumbrous and inconvenient to handle ; besides, the 
leaves are not cut, which annoys me some ; but, upon the 

* Judge Stephens had a peculiar fondness for dogs and for horses. No 
one could be more kind to them, or more considerate of their comfort. 
He loved to feed them from his own hand, and took delight in seeing them 
eat. He prepared for the historic dog, ^/o, so long the pet of "Liberty 
Hall," this epitaph: 

Rio : 

" Here rest the Remains 

Of what, in Life, was a Satire on the Human Race, 

And an Honor to his own — 

A Faithful Dog." 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 299 

whole, I am tolerably well pleased. I suppose the cream 
of the work is in the last, or second volume. He has this 
philosophy — that men first make, or found, or form, insti- 
tutions, and then these institutions form, or mold, the char- 
acters of men. These, in their time, react on the institu- 
tions, etc. He is a man of ideas. I see, clearly, that he 
is about to make Caesar the great man of Rome. He was 
the advocate of popular rights against the incroachments of 
an insolent, corrupt aristocracy. I always had kindness of 
feeling towards Caisar until I read Cicero last summer. 
Whether Napoleon will win back my generous sympathy 
for him, I don't know yet. I got my first ideas of Caesar 
from Dr. Foster.* 

[From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

Crawfordville, July 25, 1866. 

Dear Brother — I am still on 

"Julius Csesar. " I need hardly say, I suppose, that Na- 
poleon is winning back, in some degree, my old regard for 
the great man 

[From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

Crawfordville, July 31, 1866. 

Dear Brother — I got nothing from you this morning. 
I am anxious to hear from you about the convention, 
whether you will go or not. I see that the great Ocean 
Telegraph has succeeded at last. America and Europe are 
put in immediate communication through the wonderful 
and mysterious agency of magnetic electricity ! What next? 
I have got through with the second volume of "Julius Cae- 
sar," by Napoleon, but was sadly disappointed at the end. 
It closed with the crossing of the Rubicon by Caesar, the 
beginning of the civil war. I had expected the volume to 

* The Dr. Foster alluded to was the late Dr. Thomas Foster, of Walker 
county. He was a bold, original thinker, and a gentleman of learning 
and culture. To him, as much as to any one else, is the State indebted 
for the construction of the Western & Atlantic Railroad. Mr. Stephens' 
speech carried the measure in the Legislature. Dr. Foster supplied him 
with much of his data, both of fact and argument. 



300 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

finish a full history of his whole life, closing with the Et hi, 
Brute I which, in the fore part of the work. Napoleon says 
were his last words. He says that Csesar spoke and wrote 
Greek nearly as well as he did Latin. Of course, there is 
to be another volume — perhaps more, I don't know. Na- 
poleon is a great man himself. In drawing the character 
of Caesar, he is evidently drawing the character of one whom 
he would like to be considered himself. The book shows 
mind of a high order, and sentiments which ought to do 
honor to any rational mind. Some points are cleared up 
in this book which were always unexplained to me: one is, 
What was the exact point of difference between Caesar and 
the Senate, which led to civil war? I can but think, with 
Dr. Foster, that Caesar was not so vuicJi to blame for the 
sad results as others. His enemies, at first, passed a reso- 
lution in the Senate that he should disband his army. This 
he had before said he would do if Pompey would do the 
same. The time Vvas not out for which they both held 
their commissions; his lacked a year or more. After the 
Senate passed the resolution ordering him to disband his 
army, very much to the surprise of Marcellus, the Consul 
at the time, who had taken the lead in the matter, Cicero 
offered a resolution that Pompey also disband his army, and 
this resolution likewise passed by over two hundred ma- 
jority. But Marcellus would not obey the last resolution. 
He and others (a few) declared the commonwealth in dan- 
ger; and, without any legal authority, called upon Pompey 
to protect Rome — to levy troops, etc. Pompey consented, 
and assumed the powers thus usurped. Upon this news 
reaching Caesar, he crossed the Rubicon. The reason of 
the opposition to Caesar in the Senate was his known hos- 
tility to the Aristocratic party and their policy, which had 
been carried out by Sylla. He was the representative man 
of the people of that party; while the Gracchi and Marius 
were the representatives of the Democratic party. Caesar, 
on the paternal line, had descended from plebeian stock. 

The following extracts from letters addressed to a female 
friend evince a strong and beautiful religious element of his 
nature — never ostentatiously displayed, but always felt, and 
on befittincf occasions acknowlede'ed : 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 30 1 

June 3, 1867. 

There is not, in all the beauty 

of the plan for man's salvation, a more beautiful picture than 
the provision of a Priest after the order of Melchisedek. 
"Touched with a sense of our infirmities," His sympathy, 
His suffering with and for those He came to save, His very 
suffering is, in a certain limited sense, incompatible with a 
totality of perfcctioii. The Jnivian nature, touched with a 
sense of our infirmities, partaking, not at all of our sin, but 
still in our zveakness, is the very thing which renders Him a 
Mediator- hai^een God and man, which brings the Son into 
the closest and sweetest relations with the hearts of men. 



[ From same to same. ] 

January 6, 1867. 

The very same sentiment 

has different phases, and finds vent in different expressions, 
without suffering any change of nature or force. God is 
above all change in Himself, and yet He is ever presenting 
Himself to His creatures in endless changes of manifesta- 
tion and expression — the necessary result of His fullness 
and infinitude of glory. Of course, I do not mean a coni- 
parisoii; I only mean to illustrate, by the highest example, 
an idea which struck me as likely to need illustration. Spec- 
ulations concerning the Divine character (I know no better 
word) are always dangerous ground, and should be cau- 
tiously and reverently restrained within proper limits ; but 
there are limits, after all, within which our conceptions of 
God are not speculations at all, but kjiowledge — more cer- 
tain, by far, than that which we can possibly have of any 
other being in the universe. To dwell on his known 'attri- 
butes and character, and from these, as our starting point, 
to learn the Unknown — so far as poor human reason can 
draw sure conclusions from sure premises — is not irrever- 
ence, but the study of the profoundest wisdom, reverence, 
fear, love, and worship. My thoughts turn, very often, 
upon the contemplation and reverent study of the Supreme 
Intelligence which fashioned the universe, and filled it with 
beauty ; and of the Infinite love which provided redemption 
for man, who had fallen from the high estate of his creation. 



302 • BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

I am prone — perhaps too prone — to draw from that high 
and holy source illustrations for even the tritest ideas of 
every-day life. What, after all, is religion but the knowl- 
edge of God, applied to all the affairs of life? The knowl- 
edge involves and carries with it the love and adoration ; 
and the deepest knowledge brings love and adoration of the 
highest type 

After the lapse of twenty-nine years, he thus recalls a 
half-dreamy revery of his orphaned childhood: 

[ From same to same. ] 

May 8, 1867. 

This is a bright and beautiful morning — a bright and 
beautiful morning in May; a bright and beautiful morning, 
bursting upon my little sense with a brilliance which is a 
glorious contrast with the clouds, and rain, and gloom of 
yesterday and the day before. Yes, the morning is bright 
and beautiful, but it is cool — quite cool. We have had a 
narrow escape from frost. The green glories, which are so 
radiant with life and sunlight, have had a narrow escape 
from death and darkness. But they have escaped ; and if 
they had human thoughts and feelings, they might now be 
rejoicing in the new joy of a great peril safely passed. I 
remember, there was a frost just twenty-nine years ago this 
very day — the 8th of May, 1838. Ah! how far back my 
memory runs ! How well I remember that day, twenty- 
nine years ago ! I was a little school-boy then, boarding 
in the country, and walking to the village school, a distance 
of two miles. That morning, I mastered a lesson before 
breakfast, sitting in a saving that hung out in the large, 
white, sandy, shady yard — sitting, swinging to and fro, with 
a slight, gentle motion, and conning my lesson, yet listen- 
ing all the while to the low, soft music of the young poul- 
try crying for their morning meal. I was a little dreamer, 
even then ; strangely enough, too — strangely for so young 
a dreamer, my thoughts turned to the past, not the future. 
The lesson finished, the book was laid in my lap, my arms 
were clasped around the poles which formed the swing, one 
foot keeping up the gentle swaying motion, by a regular, 
recurring, mechanical, and almost unconscious touch upon 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 303 

the ground ; my head drooped upon my breast, and thought 
floated upon the sweet, plaintive sounds around me, away 
to the spot where reposed the ashes of my loved but ntirc- 
niembered dead. I was in the past, and yet not in the land 
of memory. Imagination was picturing out the scenes of the 
old homestead, as best it could from the treasured materials 
of imperfect tradition. There was the log-house in which I 
was born, the garden, the orchard, the immense wild grape- 
vine, amid the great rocks, at a little distance ; and the 
spring — the glorious spring, bursting from a rock under a 
great bluff, and dashing and dancing down the valley in a 
bright stream, that sang as merrily as it danced. And I 
strayed back up the hill again, in search of the living forms 
that moved amid the scene. Father, brothers, and sisters 
rose up before my eager eyes, but my deepest interest was 
centered in the tall form of a woman, still young and hand- 
some, moving with a sedate grace, whigh bespoke the very 
sweetness of dignity, and selecting for her walk the very 
sweetest spots, with an unerring instinct, that told of a heart 
at once deeply loving and deeply hallozued. She seemed 
to cast bright and hopeful glances towards the "new house" 
rising unfinished from a clump of trees on the brow of a gen- 
tle slope. She had laid away some of her darlings among 
the cedars in the garden ; but she was now beginning to 
emerge from the darker shades of poverty, and was about 
to secure a better house, a sweeter home, for the dear ones 
who were left to her love. But, ah ! the "new house " was 
destined to remain unfinished forever! The cedars in the 
garden ! The lovely form pointed me to the cedars in the 
garden, and then faded from my view. I followed her point- 
ing, and stood solitary and desolate among the cedars in 
the garden ! Amid their deep, dark shade was a grave — 
her grave, already grass-grown from age! Lilies — sweet, 
white lilies — were bending over it, and dropping their fra- 
grance upon the sacred dust. The boy in the swing uttered 
a low, deep moan, and burst into tears — tears of intense 
yearning for the unknown blessing of a mother's love ! . . 



In May, 1865, Mr. A. H. Stephens, ex-Vice- President of 
th6 Confederate States, was arrested at his home by a dc- 



304 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

tachment of United States soldiers. He was carried to 
Boston harbor, and imprisoned in Fort Warren. After 
months of confinement, friends from the South, and else- 
where, were permitted to visit him. This was accomplished 
mainly through the personal and persistent exertions of the 
late Henry Wilson, afterwards Vice-President of the United 
States. It was by his efforts, too, that Mr. Stephens was 
granted more comfortable quarters, after weeks of exposure 
and suffering in a damp, unwholesome dungeon. As soon 
as intelligence reached Judge Stephens that he would be 
allowed to see his brother, he left his business, his home, 
his children, to visit and stay with the captive — thus vol- 
untarily accepting the privations of prison-life, and sharing 
with him the hardships of a common cell. It is a noble 
exemplification of unselfish devotion, recalling and excel- 
ling the beautiful, fraternal aftection which makes the fame 
of the Cicero brothers " ^c'/^??rr than it is brilliant." The 
incident proved to be one of the fortunate felicities in the 
life of Judge Stephens — a "blessing in disguise." Among 
the almost daily visitors to Fort Warren, after permission 
granted, were Dr. Salter and family. They were residents 
of Boston. Of the members of the family, was one whom 
Judge Stephens had met five years before, in Washington 
City — a bright and beautiful girl, then not past her teens. 
Memories, doubtless, of those earlier and better days were 
revived ; a mutual attachment sprang up between them ; it 
ripened into a warmer passion, and she — Mary W. Salter — 
became his wife in June, 1867. This excellent lady is still 
in life — serus in cceluni redcat ; but still, it is hardly doing 
violence to this necrological office to record, that, in all re- 
spects, she was to him a help-meet indeed, and that the tes- 
timonials he has left of her worth and her virtues, and of 
his high appreciation of her in the relations of wife and 
mother, shed an aromatic redolence around their wedded 
life. I well remember the last time I saw Judge Stephens, 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 305 

It was the afternoon he left Atlanta — to return no more — 
in the first days of July, 1872. He had been engaged by 
the Governor, as counsel in behalf of the State, to assist in 
investigating the alleged frauds of the preceding State ad- 
ministration ; and some weeks had been occupied in making 
the investigation. We took a long walk together. The 
thought of going home was uppermost in his mind, and the 
pleasure it gave him lit up his features with an unwonted 
glow of sunshine and joy. He spoke of the sweet attrac- 
tions of liis home; of his wife and children, so affection- 
ately and so fondly; and then — a tear standing' in his large, 
deep-set, blue eye — he said, "How I wish I were through 
with this business ! I would not give one day at home for 
a lifetime of the toil and turmoil of public or professional 
life." His manner lent emphasis to the words, and deep- 
ened the impression they made. 

[From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

Philadelphia, 415 North Fourth Street, 
February 13, 1868. 

Dear Brother — Your two letters, or rather, coverings, 
with contents, of the 7th instant, were received last night. 
I regret very much indeed the fatality, or bad luck, which 
caused the delay of my letter to you, inclosing the intro- 
duction. Your suggestions have produced a very deep im- 
pression upon me. The impression is not unHke that which 
I supposed was produced upon Myers, the painter, by a 
view of Healy's picture, according to the account you gave 
me of it. I was myself very much pleased with the intro- 
duction — indeed, better pleased with it than with any part 
of the work ; but when I read your remarks upon it, and 
saw your suggestions for improvement, I changed my mind 
about the whole concern. I became disgusted, not only 
with the introduction, but with the whole work. If matters 
had not gone so far, I should have pitched the whole into 
the fire and retired to my den, there to live out my days, 
few or many, in perfect seclusion. 

I am now fully convinced that writing is not my forte. 



306 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

The truth is, I have no forte. I am fit for nothing, and 
ought never to have attempted to do what nature never de- 
signed me to do. Had I got your letter a few days ago, 
the introduction would have been thoroughly remodeled. 
But it is now all over the country — in the mails and in the 
hands of the newspaper men in this city, and all the lead- 
ing presses in New York and Boston, to appear simultane- 
ously to-morrow morning — so Mr. Jones informs me. It 
is too late to touch it now, before its full appearance before 
the public. The first impression will be that which will 
ever accompany it. For the book, I might do with it as 
Foster's boy proposed to his father to do with the beef — 
throw it away, and try my hand upon another; but that 
would do no essential good. I now feel about the whole 
book — the whole undertaking — as John Dyson did when 
his rusticity and ill-breeding exposed him to the laugh of 
genteel company — "7 %vish I was to home ;" but when I 

shall get there, I do not know I have 

lost all interest I had to see the book out: I now feel as if 
it would be a fortunate thing for me and my reputation, 
that something should occur to arrest its further progress, 
and prevent its ever seeing the light. I hardly think I can 
be at our Taliaferro court. 

If you can go over there, I wish you would ; and if you 
can be at Columbia court, I wish you would attend to a case 
in equity in that court for me; my client is Crawford, a brother 
to George W. ; Charles, I believe, his name is. If you can- 
not go conveniently, it will make no great difference — I shall 
write to Shockley, and ask him to continue it ; but I should 
like for you to go, if you can, without inconvenience. I 
don't know if you have any court to attend that week : it 
is the first Monday in March, I believe. My love to all. 
Yours, most affectionately, 

Alexander H. Stephens. 



The book alluded to in the feregoing letter is "The His- 
tory of the War between the States." How well founded 
Mr. Stephens' misgivings were as to its merits and popu- 
larit}^, may be judged of by the fact that his receipts from 
sales amounted to the sum of forty thousand dollars. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 307 

[From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

Springfield, Mass., February 25, 1868. 

Dear Brother — I see the House 

has passed a resolution, directing articles of impeachment to 
be brought in against the President : this I have been look- 
ing for for sometime. The President's letter to the Senate, 
in answer to their resolution on the subject, is an able pa- 
per, and will forever justify his acts in the minds of rightly- 
thinking men, whatever may be the result of the impeach- 
ment question. I have said nothing to you on politics, 
lately — nothing since I left home. The reason has been, I 
take very little interest in the subject. I feel like a passen- 
ger who has no control in the direction of the ship ; and 
hence, it is just as well to be silent, and not busy myself 
about matters over which I cannot exercise any control, and 
not to permit myself to vex my mind, or think about pub- 
lic affairs 

Judge Stephens felt the most anxious solicitude in the re- 
sult of the Presidential election of 1868 ; but he took no ac- 
tive part in the contest. The ashes left by the fires of the 
sectional war were yet too warm to be stirred. The ex- 
pression of any choice for the presidency, by any Southern 
leader who had been prominently identified with the for- 
tunes of his section, in the struggle, would, he believed, 
hurt, rather than help, the cause he had at heart; and there- 
fore, conforming his conduct to the principle of the mathe- 
matical axiom, " the addition of a negative quantity is equiv- 
alent to the subtraction of a positive one," he held himself 
aloof from active participation in the contest. 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

, June I, 1868. 

Dear Brother — I have just writ- 
ten to her in relation, or in answer, to what she asks about 
Judge Chase, that, in my opinion, Pendleton is the man for 
the Democratic party to nominate. In my opinion, he is 
the strongest man that can be nominated, and, upon the 



308 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

whole, is the best, all things considered. I stated that I 
would be willing to take Hancock, Thomas Seymour, Gov- 
ernor Parker, or Adams, or any one that the Democracy 
may likely nominate, not excepting Judge Chase. In the 
present state of things, if the Democracy should nominate 
him, he would be preferred by the South as a choice of 
evils. This I gave as my own opinion ; but I stated that I 
did not think that the Western Democracy would nominate 
Chase. I stated that I thought that Hancock and Adams 
would make a ticket that would take well in Georgia. But 
can Hancock run well in the West? I added, wouldn't his 
compulsory connection with Mrs. Surratt's condemnation 
lose him many votes at the West? The letter, I told her, 
was for herself only, but I concluded by saying that, in my 
opinion, Pendleton was, or ought to be, the man 

[ L. S. to Hon. Iverson L. Harris. ] 

Sparta, July 21, 1868. 

My Dear Judge — Great is my regret that I cannot be at 
home when you propose to spend the day with me on your 
way to commencement. I start, to-morrow morning, for 
the Virginia Springs ; and the state of my health requires 
that there should be no failure in the trip. I do not expect 
to return before the middle of September. I hope you 
will avail yourself of some other early occasion to make me 
a visit. By the way, why don't you come to our courts? 
Come to our next, and spend your time with me ; and let 
me know beforehand whether you will come or not. 

I have long intended to tell you how much I admire your 
dissenting opinion in the case where the majority of the 
court decided against the validity of a contract for a substi- 
tute in the Confederate armies. Your opinion, for the lu- 
minous, philosophical, and sound views which it presents 
on a subject of profound interest to mankind, is entitled to 
immortality. If I were not very busy in preparing to leave 
home, I would go into particulars. As it is, I must content 
myself with the general expression, which means all it says. 
Most truly, your friend, 

Linton Stephens. 

A proposition was made that Mr. A. H. Stephens should 
move his residence from Crawfordville to Sparta, and that 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 3O9 

the brothers should form a copartnership in the practice of 
law. The letter following relates to that subject. They 
had never been of counsel on opposing sides. If the pro- 
position of partnership was ever seriously entertained, the 
consummation of it was frustrated by the terrible mishap 
which befell the elder brother in February, 1869, and from 
the physical effects of which he never sufficiently recovered, 
during Linton's lifetime, to be able to leave his home. 

[From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

Crawfordville, Novembers, 1868. 

Dear Brother — I fully 

reciprocate your feelings and wishes as to our being together, 
as much as possible, during the remnant of my days, or our 
joint lives. I am the more and more, every day, impressed 
with the conviction of the truth of the great uncertainty of 
human affairs, and especially of the uncertainty of human 
life. I know I am approaching that period at Vv'hich, or 
beyond which, a few years, at best, can be reasonably ex- 
pected. This thought, or reflection, however, does not 
bring with it any feelings of regret or sadness ; it only more 
fully awakens a desire to have all things in order, and to be 
ready to depart when the time comes ; and also quickens a 
wish, while I am here, to enjoy, to the best advantage, and 
as fully as possible, those pleasures which contribute what 
of happiness is allowed to this form of existence. To me, 
amongst those, none are greater than such as spring from 
association and communton with you, especially when we 
are entirely to ourselves. I have often thought of the many, 
many associations of this sort — such as our travels to the 
western part of the State, in 1847, as well as our repeated 
travels to Washington and other places, to say nothing of 
our short drives from here to Sparta, and from court to 
court 

[ From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

Crawfordville, December 31, 1868. 

Dear Brother — I never heard the 

inquiry made before about the origin of ism, in our Ian- 



310 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

guage. I have thought about it since, and have solved the 
puzzle quite satisfactorily to myself. I think it is a sort of 
contraction of tlieni into cm, and tJicn into isDi. I will take 
catechism to illustrate by : First, it was catechise, then cat- 
echise 'em, then "catechism." The noun catechism came 
to be used to express the process of "catechising 'em." 
So incivism, from " incivise them;" so radicalism, from 
"radicalizing them," and so on. When once the form of 
making a noun from a previous proceeding, or process, was 
instituted, it was adopted, without reference to its origin. 
But I can say no more : you have my solution. It will 
do to account for it, if no better be pointed out. Radical- 
ism is the process of ' ' radicalizing them. " I rather suspect 
catechism was the first of the words. It was the one I be- 
gan with, in solving the problem 

The above was in" answer to an inquiry of Judge Ste- 
phens. They frequently, in their correspondence, discussed 
the meaning of the like terminations ; e.g., God-head, God- 
ship, etc.; as, see the following: 

[From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

Crawfordville, January 2, 1869. 

Dear Brother — What is the origin of 

ship, at the end of English words ; such as, worship, author- 
ship, etc. ? Also, what is the origin of ness, at the end of 
certain other words; such as, greatness, highness, manli- 
ness, etc. ? 

[From L. S. to A. H. S.] 

Sparta, January 6, 1 869. 

Dear Brother — With a big and 

troublesome day's work before me, I begin by writing you 
a line to let you hear from us all. I am quite unwell — an- 
noyed to death, besides being sick — made sick chiefly, per- 
haps, by annoyances. Land sold here, yesterday, at prices 
considerably higher than any recently obtained : one large 
place of thirteen hundred acres, at four dollars per acre, 
and one of one thousand acres at seven dollars. 

Your account of the origin of "ism" is '-ertainly very 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 3II 

ingenious ; but I don't think it is correct. When you said 
you thought that the habit of forming words with the ter- 
mination "ism," began with the word ''catechism,'' the 
thing became rich- in humor. The fact is, I laughed over 
your theory heartily. It certainly never could have started 
with any other word. How do you account for the termi- 
nation "ise," in verbs;- such as, advertise, catechise, har- 
monise, etc.? The "ise," in verbs, and the "ism," in 
nouns, are from the same root. What that root is cannot 
be told by my poor skill in the old English roots ; but the 
weaning of that root is, to do, or make. Take advertise, 
for instance: advert and ''ise'' are its three distinct roots. 
To advertise a thing is to make it adverted to ; you see my 
idea. The termination, "ship," means 2^ state, or situation; 
and I strongly suspect that it comes from — no, I am wrong ; 
it don't mean state. State is passive, but ship is active. It 
means something very nearly akin to process, or pi'actice, 
or acting. For instance, authorship, author, practice, au- 
thor-acting ; heirship, heir-practice, or heir-acting. Some- 
times, the meaning becomes more obvious by reversing the 
positions of the parts ; as, author-acting, heir-acting, means 
acting-author or acting-heir. The termination, "ness, " 
means being, existence, or essence ; and I suspect "esse," in 
Latin, and essence and ness, are all from the same root, 
which probably pervades many languages, if it is, indeed, 
absent from any. The word to express "being" is irreg- 
ular in all languages ; and irregularity is in proportion to 
universality. 

But enough. I have no time now. The fact is, I am 
harrassed, annoyed and worn almost to despair and pros- 
tration. I intend to go and see you in a few days. 

Most affectionately, Linton Stephens. 

[From L. S. to A. li. S. ] 

Sparta, February 13, 1870. 

Dear Brother — By the way, the 

adjournment of the Richmond court may have a contagious 
influence on our courts generally ; and I shall not be at all 
surprised if your court is also adjourned. I suppose you 
noticed an account of the adjournment in August — that it 
was put on the ground of doubt as to the validity of any 



312 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

proceedings which might be had. I think the adjournment, 
on that ground, was a mistake, and a mistake which, from 
its contagious nature, may produce annoying delays in busi- 
ness. If the courts would only go along and attend to 
their business, I have very little doubt that the validity of 
their proceedings would be sustained without even serious 
question. Any government that is likely to be put on us 
will treat all its predecessors as de facto governments, what- 
ever it may say about them. The fact is, no Radical can 
believe more strongly than I do, that all the government 
which we have had since the war ended has been utterly 
illegal ; but I am not prepared, nor do I believe the Rad- 
icals are prepared, to pronounce it all null and void. They 
hold that all the government, under secession, was illegal ; 
and yet, in their new Constitution, they affirmed every bit 
of it, except such parts as were in conflict with their own 
subsequent action. So it will be again. This is the neces- 
sity of society, and cannot be ignored in action, however 
much it may be denied in speech 

[From L. S. to A. H. S.] 

Sparta, May 31, 1870. 

Dear Brother — Alfriend 

himself had a decided attack of the same disease, and laid 
up on account of it yesterday and the day before. I got 
quite a laugh on him, last night, by dragging out of him a 
confession that he had not used, for himself, the remedies 
which he was prescribing for his patients. He made an ex- 
planation ; but it was so lame that it did not make impres- 
sion enough to be even remembered. The explanation is — 
his reluctance to take medicine. I don't think it would be 
quite just to go so far as to say that it is his lack of faith 
in the virtue of the medicine ; and yet, there is undoubt- 
edly a general tendency in mankind to appreciate the virtue 
of medicine more highly for others than for one's self. I 
hope we shall all be well again in a few days 

I have been reading "Bledsoe" with great entertainment 
and some profit. He is a very peculiar man. He is quite 
a thinker — and logical, too ; but the light of his understand- 
ing seems to be always refracted by its passage through the 
medium of his passions. It will always lead to error, in- 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 313 

Stead of truth, unless it is subjected to the correcting guid- 
ance of some other mind that understands the laws of re- 
fraction. Still, he is a luminous body, and emits light in 
great profusion. Even his article on the "Theory of Rea- 
soning," while it is freer from the blurs and errors of zeal 
and passion than any other which I have ever read from 
him, is still not entirely free. I think that is a grand arti- 
cle ; and yet, I do not think it goes to the bottom of the 
subject. It is far in advance of anything else ever seen on 
the same subject, but does not go to the full extent of the 
ideas which I have long entertained on that subject. He 
has gone far ahead of me in the power and beauty of his 
illustrations, without going so far as I have gone with the 
main idea. The idea that deductive reasoning leads to new 
truth, and so becomes worthy of the name of reasoning, 
only when it is employed upon the relations of things, in- 
stead of their properties, etc Sam. Barnett 

came over Wednesday and staid with us until Saturday 
morning. His visit was a very pleasant one to all of us, 
and apparently to him also 

Judge Stephens' norms of political action were fixed, pro- 
nounced and stable, as those he prescribed for the govern- 
ment of his personal conduct were "without variableness 
or shadow of turning." Truth — simple, naked, rugged — 
was the divinity he worshipped; he bowed before no other 
altar: there he knelt "with an almost Eastern idolatry." 
He scorned any '■'■policy'' in political tactics, as in anything 
else, which compromised, in the least, any cardinal doctrine 
of his creed. He spurned triumph when achieved at the 
sacrifice of one jot or tittle of the truth, as he understood 
it. He regarded "the coalition" between the Democrats 
and the Liberal Republicans, proposed about this time, as 
little less than a surrender, on the part of the former, of 
the most cherished principles of their faith. Hence, he re- 
pudiated "the coalition." His counsels did not prevail 
ultimately ; and the movement culminated, two years after- 
wards, in the nomination of Mr, Greeley for the Presidency 



314 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

by the Liberal Republicans, and the ratification of their 
nomination by the Democrats. Posterity will determine 
who was the more sagacious — he, and the minority with 
whom he acted, or the large majority of the Democratic 
party. Two facts are historic : the one that Mr. Greeley 
was defeated — the other is that Governor Smith was elected 
to the gubernatorial chair without regular opposition, first, 
and re-elected by the largest popular majority ever received 
by any candidate before for any office in the State. The 
platform upon which Smith was elected was framed by 
Linton Stephens. 

On the 28th of July, he writes to his brother: 

Sparta, July 28, 1870. 

Dear Brother — I have 

just written a letter to Andy Dawson, on politics, pouring 
hot shot into the Chase movement, and into all people who 
want to abandon principle and go into coalitions for public 
plunder. I have talked with several leading Democrats in 
this county, and. found them all right. They all said they 
wanted me to go to the convention. I told them I would 
go if chosen. I do believe that even one powerful battery 
would be sufficient to break up coalition and drive the hosts 
into the support of sound principles. The strong power 
to use on them is to convince them that a sound man, on 
sound principles, will be run aiiv/unv, and that coalition will, 
therefore, be a necessary /i:^/7?/;r. Coalition flees from fail- 
ure, as purity flees from pollution. They would pull down 
their own banner, and take chances for the good luck which 
falls pretty liberally to even the rogues who help honest 
men into power. 

Yours, most affectionately, 

Linton Stephens. 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, August 7, 1870. 

Dear Brother — The delegates 

from this county to the Democratic convention are — Ben 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 315 

Harris, John Culver, T. J. Adams, and myself. I doubt 
whether any of them will go to the convention, except Ben 
Harris and myself. I shall go with very little hope of doing 
any good. The men of luck, all over the world, have been 
against the cause of good government ever since secession ; 
and it is still unbroken. It is just as perverse and persistent 
as the run of cards. I believe that the Prussians will beat 
Napoleon, and accomplish Bismarck's scheme of a consol- 
idated German Empire. I believe so, only because the run 
of luck is that way — against liberty, cveryzvhcrc. The ideas 
now moving the world are, for the most part, morbid and 
crazy ideas, which are the legitimate fruit of hot-bed. and 
universal education. I am beginning to believe that many 
things, usually accounted as unmixed blessings to mankind 
are more curses than blessings. Education is one of them, 
and religion is another. I speak of education and religion, 
so-called, and such as pass current in the world. Speaking 
of education reminds me to tell you that I expect to have 
your protege, Harris, for the teacher of our little school. 
I wrote to Professor Waddell to send me a teacher. He 
offered Harris, with a very high commendation of his tal- 
ents, attainments, and character; and I have just written 
my acceptance of the offer. He is to remain at Athens, 
perfecting himself in \\\q pronunciation of French, under Pro- 
fessor Charbonnier, until the ist of October, and is then to 
come and open the school. So the children have quite a 
vacation still before them 

He was of the committee on the business of the State 
Democratic convention, and here follows the platform, as 
drafted by him, whereon the party so triumphantly swept 
the State : 

Resolved, i. That the Democratic party of the State of 
Georgia stand upon the principles of the Democratic party 
of the Union — bringing into special prominence, as appli- 
cable to the present extraordinary condition of the country, 
the unchangeable doctrine that : This is a Union of States, 
and of the indestructibility of the States, and of their rights, 
and of their equality with each other, as an indispensable 
part of our political system. 



3l6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

Resolved, 2. That, in the approaching State election, the 
Democratic party cordially invite everybody to co-operate 
with them in a zealous determination to change, as far as 
the several elections to be held can do so, the present usurp- 
ing and corrupt administration of the State government, by 
placing in power men who are true to the principles of con- 
stitutional government, and to a faithful and economical ad- 
ministation of public affairs. 

Resolved, 3. That the president of this convention be in- 
structed to appoint an executive committee, composed of two 
from each Congressional district, who shall choose a chair- 
man from outside their own number, with power on their 
part to call a future convention of the Democratic party, 
and with such other powers as have been usually exercised 
by Democratic executive committees; and that their ap- 
pointment last until the assemblage of the next Democratic 
convention. 

Judge Stephens was selected chairman of the State Demo- 
cratic Executive Committee. In his letter of acceptance, 
he avowed so strongly his unalterable adhesion to the old 
faith, that some of the new-departurists, so-called, con- 
demned his letter as impolitic. He resigned in consequence 
thereof. A meeting of the committee was called at Macon 
to fill the vacancy thereby created. The following letter to 
his friend, Hon. Martin J. Crawford, a member of the com- 
mittee, evoked by the occasion, explains itself: 

Sparta, September 19, 1870. 
Dear Judge — Your letter, forwarded to me from home 
while I was at Greene court, was received last week. I had 
no opportunity to answer it then, nor was my mind then 
made up as to all I might have to say in answer. I did not 
need a moment's reflection to say that it gratified me very 
much, and made me laugh very heartily; but I needed both 
further developments and further reflection to determine my 
course; and I at once foresaw that, if my course should be 
what I have now determined it shall be, I should have to 
ask your assistance. Don't be alarmed, for I am not going 
to ask anything that involves martyrdom, or even heroism, 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 317 

or that requires you to incur any personal hazard whatever. 
Don't understand me as intimating the least doubt that you 
are capable of winning the hero's chaplet, or the martyr's 
crown, in d. proper case : I only mean that, in the present in- 
stance, there is no need for the sacrifice. 

The assistance I want involves a confidence, and although 
a confidence like a bargain, requires tzvo to make it; yet, I 
do not feel that I am presuming too far on your friendship, 
in assuming that it Will be accepted by you for me, as it 
would be accepted by me for you, in a like case. The ex- 
ecutive committee, when it meets at Macon, on the 27th 
instant, may, or may not, elect me chairman. If I am not 
elected, why, there is an end of it, and there is nothing fur- 
ther to be done on my part ; but if I am elected, then I 
wish to declbic the appointment ; and I wish you to express 
this determination for me after the event, and on the spot, 
and at the moment. Of course, I cannot allow the com- 
pletion of the committee to be longer delayed by any ac- 
tion of mine; and, therefore, it shall not be prevented, by 
me, from securing a chairman before it disperses. 

The confidence which I commit to you, is to keep my in- 
tention sacredly secret until the election is over. Don't com- 
municate it to anybody at all, but keep it in your own breast 
until the election is over. I should despise myself if I were 
capable of holding out my intended declension as an indnce- 
nient to bestow on me an empty personal compliment ; but 
I am not weak enough to place the least value in it, if it 
should come in a way to deprive it of all meaning. 

Therefore, it is essential that my intention shall not be 
made known before the proper time. If the question shall 
be raised, as it may be, whether I would accept or not, you 
are authorized to say I would ; and then, if I should be 
elected, you are further authorized, and specially requested, 
to. say that I do accept, and do.,also resign. There is a great 
deal in the way of putting a thing, and the way to put this 
thing is, not that I decline the position, but that I accept it, 
and resign it. There is a substantial and wide difference 
between the two things, and my form of statement is the 
proper one to develop the difference. The language which 
I have myself used in the preceding part of this letter, about 
" declining" and "declension," is inaccurate, and should 
not be repeated. The proper language, if the position be 



3l8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

tendered to me, would be that I accept it, and resign it; 
and, therefore, the proper response beforehand, if the ques- 
tion should be asked, is, that I tvmdd accept it. I ask you 
to act for me, because the action which I propose to take 
must be taken on the spot before the committee disperses, 
and I can't afford to be present myself at the meeting which 
is to make the election I can't afford to be even in the 
city of Macon at the time ; for I ivill not assume the ap- 
pearance of seeking the place. I am not seeking it, and I 
don't mean to incur the appearance of seeking it; and now, 
a few words for you, and for you alone, as to my course 
after the organization of the committee: It will depend on 
the action they may take in making that organization. If 
they tender the chairmanship to me, and pass a resolution 
leaving the subject of selecting candidates with reference to 
so-called disabilities just where the convention left it, I shall 
be "harmonious;" but if they undertake to put any con- 
demnation on my course or views, I shall make the terrapin 
craivl. I know that I hold in my hands the necessary coals 
of fire, and I shall not withhold them from the back of the 
animal. I don't intend to be thrown into disgrace, because 
I am unwilling to join in betraying the Democratic party 
by hauling down its colors, silencing its guns, and surren- 
dering it bodily into the hands of the enemy; or, what is 
the same thing, by hauling down its colors and silencing its 
guns, and thus leaving it to become the inevitable prey of 
the enemy. The men who want to haul down the colors 
and silence the guns want it as a means to an end, and that 
end is surrende7'. Some of them, who are working on that 
line, and talking largely about ruling me out of the Demo- 
cratic party, have just now, for the first time, come into the 
Democratic party themselves, and have come only to betray 
it, and to secure its defeat and destruction ; and they are, 

at this moment, carrying B— * 's money in their pockets 

as a price of their treachery. If I were with you in per- 
son, I would tell you things which I am not yet ready to 
write, even to you ; for I am not yet willing to commit them 
to the chances of the mail. When men talk about "ac- 
cepting our government as it is," as the convention in the 

th district talked the other day, and about putting 

away "dead issues," as and habitually talk, 

I know what they mean — they mean treason ; and they take 



JUDGE LINlt5N STEPHENS. 3I9 

an inside position only to surrender the fortress. If the 
"issues" which the Democratic party made at New York, 
in 1868, against the vahdity of Radical usurpations and war- 
fare on the States, are indeed "dead," then the Democratic 
party is dead also — dead already — although, like the dead 
stage-horse, it may not find out the fact until it gets to the 
next station. To abandon these issues, and accept the gov- 
ernment as it is, means to form a coalition on the basis of 
giving some of the offices to so-called Democrats, and con- 
ducting the government on Radical principles, and all who 

join the coalition will become followers of at a long 

distance behind. The fact is, they will be out of smelling 
distance at the start, and will need infinite self-abasement to 
bring them within range of it. They will have to acknowl- 
edge 's superior sagacity in foreseeing the necessity 

three years in advance of themselves, and they will also 
have to confess, with great openness and contrition, their 
mortal sin in having withheld from him their aid during the 
very period when their aid might have enabled him to ac- 
complish still greater ameliorations of a necessary bad thing. 
This question, as to paying any regard to so-called disa- 
bilities in soliciting candidates for Congress, can be placed 
in a practical light that is exceedingly plain. It may be, 
as Judge Hook, in his recent letter, said with great force, 
that the Radical Congress will be compelled, by public opin- 
ion, to recede from its proscriptive policy, and by act re- 
move all the so-called disabilities. If so, of course, it is all 
useless and foolish to pay any regard to those so-called dis- 
abilities in selecting candidates, or choosing members of 
Congress. But suppose Judge Hook is mistaken, and the 
Radical Congress shall ?iot recede: .then the removal of so- 
called disabilities will remain — as it heretofore has been — a 
matter of grace, in favor of particular persons ; and no man 
of sense can doubt that the grace will be granted to none 
but such as will agree to accept the government as it is — 
usurpations and all — and comhict it on that basis without 
even a pledge against unlimited usurpation in the future. 

Why, and actually favored and advised the 

ratification of the so-called XVth amendment. This is the 
crucial test: Does the proposed candidate accept the gov- 
ernment as it is — confessed usurpations and all — or does he, 
as the National Democratic party, in its late utterance at 



320 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

New York, declared it would do, wage war upon the usurp- 
ations, and insist upon the Constitution in its purity, and 
upon the rights of the States, which have been trampled 
in the dust by these usurpations? To vote for a man hold- 
ing the first of these positions is simply to kill the Demo- 
cratic party by the action of its own members. If Radical- 
ism is to be fought at all, I suppose it ought to be fought 
for some reason ; and when a man tells me either that he 
does not intend to attack it, or that he intends to attack it 
without weapons, or with the weakest weapons in his ar- 
mory, I know his course will never zvJiip it ; and when he 
pretends that it will, he is either a fool or a traitor. The 
cry of "revolution" and "revolutionary," which is now ap- 
plied, in unison, by the Era and the Tntc Geoj-gian, the 
Constitution and the TclcgrapJi, to any "issue" which is 
made against the validity of the so-called XlVth and XVth 
amendments, is as useless as it is treacherous. The turn 
which its vociferators endeavor to give to it is, that any de- 
nial of the validity of these so-called amendments is an at- 
tack on our present established form of government. Es- 
tablished? How? By Congressional enactment and Pres- 
idential proclamation ! / say these pretended additions to 
the Constitution could be "established " only in the mode 
prescribed by the Constitution itself; and that, not having 
been so established, they are nullities, and ought to be 
treated, and by the Democratic party n'lll be treated, as 
nullities, whenever that party comes into the administration 
of the government. They are just as much nullities as if 
they had been enacted and proclaimed by a mob in the 
street. They are not established, nor never will be, until 
the count?-]' shall accept, as a finality, the doctrine that the 
Constitution can be changed by Congressional enactment 
and Presidential proclamation. The Alien and Sedition 
acts raised the question as to what poivers were conferred in 
the Constitution, and the XlVth and XVth (so-called) 
amendments raise the question as to what papers, or scrips, 
or words, if you please, are in the Constitution, and form 
a part of it. How is the one issue any more revolutionary 
than the other? Nobody proposes to resist the present 
government with arms, but only to turn out the usurpers 
by I'otes, and then administer the government according to 
the true Constitution, leaving the usurpers to submit, as we 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 321 

have done, or inaugurate a revolution of violence and 
blood-shed, if they shall so choose. ' But enough. The 
importance of the subject is my excuse for the length of 
this letter. 

Yours, very truly, 

Linton Stephens. 

P, S. — I take it for granted that you will attend the meet- 
ing of the committee. I beg you to do so. L. S. 

[From L. S. to Hon. Martin J. Crawford.] 

Sparta, Septenr.ber 21, 1870. 
Dear Judge — Since writing to you the other day, reflec- 
tion has changed my mind, and I now hasten to say that I 
do not wish to have the chairmanship, even if tendered to 
me ; and, of course, my position now is, that I would not 
accept it, if it should be tendered. If you find yourself in- 
clined, on this announcement, to revert to the fable of the 
fox and the sour grapes, I beg you to make an accurate an- 
alysis of the two cases. I persuade myself that such an 
analysis cannot fail to disclose a difference. The fox made 
repeated attempts to get the grapes, and, after finding that 
they were beyond his reach, he said they were sour, and 
then he walked away. It has always seemed to me that he 
had no reason for the change of opinion which he expressed 
in relation to the quality of the grapes, and I have, accord- 
ingly, always believed that the change was feigned, and not 
real. My belief has always been, that the fox had just as 
good an opinion of the grapes when he was walking away 
from them, as when he was jumping at 'em, and that he 
would have quickly retraced his retreating steps, if some 
friendly hand had bent down the bough for him. The real 
points in his case are reducible to two: the first is, that he 
undoubtedly committed the crimen falsi ; and the other is, 
that his motive was to preserve his dignity under ridiculous 
circumstances. My case presents very different features. 
I have never tried to get the chairmanship, and, therefore, 
I have no failure which needs to be covered. On the con- 
trary, I let it go when I might have held it by virtue of the 
proxies, after it had been put into my hands, nnsougltt. In 
the next and last place, 1 have really changed my opinion 
about the quality of the fruit. At first, it was fair to the 



322 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

eye, and promised to be pleasant to the taste ; and I would 
have taken it, if I could have carried off the prize without 
raising the whole neighborhood at my heels. The fox evi- 
dently entered upon his enterprise with a determination to 
snatch the spoil, if possible, and then flee from the wrath 
to come. For my part, I never had a fancy for carrying- 
even my own property in a running attitude. I don't think 
the situation a graceful owei. I was remarkably good at the 
game of "deer," when I was a boy, and I was famous at 
"wrap-jacket;" but now I would surrender my own hat 
rather than run for it or scramble for it. I have arrived at 
a time of life when a man may lose his dignity in trying to 
preserve his property. I don't want anything that I can't 
hold without a "fuss;" not that I am opposed to a fuss, 
per se, and on proper principles; but I haven't the heart to 
keep up a clamor when I can stop it by dropping something 
I happen to have. The sensation of being pursued for 
'"sonienm yotcve got,'' \s an unpleasant one. I'd drop it at 
the start, even if it were a thing of the greatest value. But, 
as I have said, I have changed my opinion about the fruit, 
and I now regard it as a thing of no value at all. The fact 
is, the Democratic party in Georgia, and in the United 
States, is rapidly becoming a mere tail to the reconstruc- 
tionists, and my idea is, that neither honor nor profit can 
be found in identif}'ing one's self with its fortunes. The 
tail is the least respectable member, even of a noble animal ; 
and my compassion is excited for the agony of degradation 
which awaits the Democrats who are struggling for the tail- 
sJiip of Radicalism. I shall not cease to point out to them 
the self-abasement which they are about to perpetrate, so 
long as I can see the least prospect of preserving a sound nu- 
cleus for the basis of a subsequent reorganization ; but I shall 
take no part or lot in the present concern. It is rotten — 
ruined by the infernal lust for office. Defeat, disastrous and 
disgraceful, is alike its doom and its due. The first fruits 
are already seen in the Maine election. The Connecticut 
Legislature refused to conform to the so-called XVth amend- 
ment ; the Democracy of Pennsylvania and California, and 
perhaps other States, have declared against its validity, and 
we are ingloriously abandoning the fight which our friends 
are making for us. And we are doing it for the greed of 
office, and at the dictation of a Congressional committee ! 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 323 

The chairman of it, , does not have the confidence 

of his own constituency, as I am informed. Their fooHsh- 
ness even exceeds their want of principle. But enough. 
Mark the prediction ! 

Yours, truly, 

Linton Stephens. 

Judge Stephens, although he declined the chairmanship, 
felt anxious concern, and took an active part in the guber- 
natorial contest. So far as his heavy professional engage- 
ments permitted, all his energies were given to the success 
of the ticket. Take, as a specimen, the letter below, ad- 
dressed to his client, friend, and kinsman : 

[ From L. S. to Hon. T. J. Smith. ] 

Sparta, October 2, 1870. 

Dear Jack — Your letter was handed to me yesterday. 
The interest it manifested in me and my fortunes is very 
gratifying to me. I knew before, just as I know now, that 
you have a great regard for me ; but I am not superior to 
the human weakness which finds pleasure in repeated ex- 
pressions of an already known regard, even when I also 
know that the expression called out in any particular in- 
stance is not equal to the regard in general. 

And now I am very sorry to be compelled to tell you, 
that you must not depend on me to represent you in your 
defense against the suit of Wilkin.son & Wilkinson. I don't 
see how it is possible for me to do so, if Judge Andrews 
goes on with our Hancock court until Saturday night, as he 
must do, unless he leaves a large amount of unfinished bus- 
iness. It will be impossible for me to be at Washington 
court on Saturday, or on any other day of that week. The 
Judge has tisiially adjourned our court on Friday night, and 
gone home Saturday morning ; but the probabilities are, that 
Friday night, this time, will find the business in a state 
which will oblige him to go on Saturday with the court. 
We have a number of criminal ca.ses, several of them capi- 
tal, and Friday night is very apt to find us right in the 
midst of one of these. But, however this may be, I know 
that, by Friday night, I shall be zvorn out with these crimi- 



324 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

nal trials. This class of cases always tvcars me far more 
than civil business ; and I shall be incapable of discharging 
my duties at Oglethorpe the following week, unless I can 
get a little intervening rest. If I go to Washington, I shall 
have to take a night drive, and get no day of rest; but if 
I do not go, I shall at least have Sunday. The fact is, I 
firmly believe that, after toiling through the criminal trials 
here, and riding the greater part of the night afterwards to 
reach your court, I should be incapable of doing justice to 
your case the next day, and should do you an injury, instead 
of a service, by keeping the lead out of fresher, and there- 
fore safer, hands. My idea of your defense is briefly, but 
clearly, embodied in the plea which I drew up and sent 
down by John Traywick ; and I think it would be wielded 
by Governor Johnson and Judge Harris with more power 
and effect than it could be by me — especially in a jaded and 
worn-out condition. It is my deliberate judgment that my 
attempt to serve you, if made under the circum.stances 
that imist attend it, would Junt, instead of help, your case. 
I have as much confidence, perhaps, as I ought to have in 
my legal ability; but experience leaves me no doubt of the 
great extent to which my capacity for any particular busi- 
ness is impaired by preceding %vear and tear. If I should 
appear in your case, under the disadvantageous circum- 
stances which would necessarily attend me, I should, in all 
probability, have the mortification of disappointing you, 
and of being obliged to believe that my friend's cause had 
only suffered from my incompetent effort to serve it. This 
is my sincere feeling and judgment. If the case goes to 
the Supreme Court, my services would be as valuable to 
you tlien as anybody else's, perhaps ; and I will render them 
with the greatest pleasure. 

I am much gratified, but not at all surprised, to find that 
you approve my recent course in relation to so-called "eli- 
gibility." It is approved most heartily by brother. General 
Toombs, Governor Johnson, and by almost eveiybody in old 
Hancock. The fact is, it is approved by all sensible men, 
who have not made up their minds to abandon principle for 
office. The number of these, as shown by recent develop- 
ments, is alarmingly large. They have made up their minds 
to accept and abide by all the usurpation and malignant op- 
pression perpetrated by the Radical party, for the gracious 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 325 

privilege of being alloivcd to hold office, if they can get it. 
In my judgment, this class of so-called Democrats are just 
as guilty as the Radicals, and still more contemptible. They 
pledge themselves not to disturb, but to accept, and abide 
by, and carry out \\\i?i\. they themselves have. been' loudest in 
denouncing as enormously criminal and destructive. This 
constitutes their guilt. The contempt comes from the base- 
ness of their motive, as well as the ignominious failure 
which will inevitably mark their treachery. They are fol- 
lowers of , at a long distance behind ; and they will 

soon discover that they can remove the intervening land 
between him and them only by vigorous dirt-eating. They 
will have to acknowledge his superior forecast, and, like the 
dog returning to his vomit, gulp down again all the dirty 
denunciations which they have poured out upon his head. 
The depths of self-abasement to which they will descend 
are unfathomable ; and then their failure will be as ignomin- 
ious as their motives are base. It may turn out that the 
Radical party will be compelled, by the force of public opin- 
ion, to recede from their proscriptive policy altogether, and 
pass an act of Congress removing the so-called disabilities 
from everybody ; but so long as the removal continues to be 
as it has heretofore been — a grace extended to particular 
persons — the grace will never be — as it never has been — ex- 
tended to anybody without an asstirance, either from him- 
self or somebody else who vouches for him, that he will sus- 
tain and carry out the reconstruction scheme — including the 
XlVth and XVth so-called amendments of the Constitution. 
You may rely upon this proposition as true, zvitJioiit any 
exception. It is possible that they may occasionally "catch 
a Tartar" in some fellow who will refuse to stand up to the 
assurance given for him by his vouchers; but I have yet to 
find a single instance of this kind. Of all the men who 
have had their so-called disabilities removed, I do no know 
one who is not obliged to answer, if the direct question is 
asked him, that he intends to abide by and carry out the 
reconstruction scheme. I need not point out to you the 
vast difference between abiding by and carrying out these 
measures, on the one hand, and on the other, the mere 
yielding to them, or not resisting them, so long as they are 
enforced by the bayonet. To resist them, under present 
circumstances, would only fasten them on us by our own 



326 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

folly: to abide by them and carry them out would be to 
fasten them upon us by our own baseness. The true course 
of wisdom and patriotism is, neither to resist them nor ac- 
cept them, but to hold them as they truly are — nullities — 
which are to be utterly disregarded and wiped out, when- 
ever sound men are put into power. The vital principle of 
the Democratic party is, devotion to the tnte Constitution, 
and opposition to these monstrous usurpations ; and when- 
ever this issue is allowed to die, the Democratic party will, 
and ought, to die with it. Their mission is, not by force, 
but by the peaceful ballot, to put into power sound men, 
who are pledged to wipe out all the usurpations, and re- 
establish the true Constitution in its purity. The first thing 
to be done for the Democratic party is to purge it of its 
rotten element. If it were purified, it would soon become 
as strong as it would immediately be glorious. My hope 
now is that the ignominious defeat which awaits its present 
desertion of principle, will teach it the much-needed lesson, 
that its success depends on its fidelity to truth. But enough. 
All in usual health, and all join me'in love and good wishes 
to you all. Your friend, 

Linton Stephens. 

[ From L. S. to Colonel Herbert Fielder. ] 

October 8, 1870. 

My Dear Sir — My acknowledgment of your letter, ex- 
pressing your approval of my recent course, was postponed, 
in the hope of having leisure to write you somewhat at 
length ; but I am at last obliged to confine myself to a briei 
expression of the pleasure I received from your approba- 
tion, and of my high appreciation of the views presented 
by you on the same line. I am particularly gratified to 
find, as I have found, that I am completely sustained by 
the very first intellects in the Democratic party. I believe 
1 am sustained by all sensible men who have not made up 
their minds to abandon principle for the chances of office. 
I am just in the midst of my principal courts; otherwise, 
I should take great pleasure in giving you some additional 
views connected with those so strongly expressed by you. 
I am truly obliged to you for your letter. 

Yours, very truly, Linton Stephens. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 32/ 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, October lo, 1870. 

Dear Brother — I imagine, 

however, that it is just as well I have no time to write any- 
thing at all ; for I am satisfied that the so-called Democracy 
are bent on destruction for the present. I know that the 
only idea of those who are manipulating the Democratic 
party, just now, is to get a thing that xvill tvin, and my hope 
is that the disastrous beating that awaits them, on their 
present line, may knock some sense into them. Want of 
sense is their greatest trouble ; for, great as their baseness 
is, it is exceeded by their folly. I know they will quit their 
present folly as soon as it gets its inevitable threshing. 
They always quit a thing that fails to ivin at the first trial, 
just as they have already run away from the New York 
platform, and from every vestige of Democratic principle ; 
but my fear is that, in dropping their present folly, they 
will take up with something else that will be no better. It 
is almost impossible for corrupt men to have faith in the 
power of tnith. Naturally enough, they cannot expect it to 
^exert over others an influence of which they themselves 
have no perception. They will never find out that the bat- 
tles of truth, when they are lost at all, as in 1868, are lost, 
not by the fidelity and candor of her supporters, but by the 
treachery of her pretended friends. 

My last and surest hope is that the people will find out, 
from bitter experience, that their present leaders are even 
bigger fools than knaves, and will at last commit their for- 
tunes to the counsels of sensible and honest men. . . . 



The Constitution of the State requires a poll-tax to be 
assessed, which shall be exclusively appropriated for educa- 
tional purposes. A large number, of the colored people 
especially, failed to pay that tax in J869. The Radical 
Legislature of the following year ignored that provision of 
the Constitution by passing an act instructing the several 
collectors to "desist" from collecting the poll-tax for the 
years 1868, 1869 and 1870. The manifest aim of the pro- 
ceeding was to secure the benefit of the colored vote in the 



328 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

coming election of Governor and members of the General 
Assembly. In the county of Judge Stephens' residence, 
that population largely preponderated ; and, standing by 
the Constitution, he made issue with the action of the 
Legislature, on the day of the election, by challenging the 
votes of such as had not paid poll-tax for the preceding 
year; and, when overruled by a majority of the managers 
of election — three out of five — on his own affidavit, he had 
the refractory majority immediately arrested, carried before 
a magistrate, tried, committed, and they, refusing to give 
bail, imprisoned. Their places were at once supplied, and 
the election proceeded. The affair created prodigious ex- 
citement. It was an episode in the life of Judge Stephens, 
in that it brought on a personal collision with an old friend. 
He was the only person Judge Stephens, since the date of 
his majority, ever struck in anger, and the only man he ever 
knocked down in his life. The affront was very gross. 
The unfortunate matter was, however, soon amicably ad- 
justed in a manner honorable alike to each, as the following 
correspondence discloses: 

[From Dr. A. S. Brown to L. S. ] 

Sparta, December 24, 1870. 

Hon. Linton Stephens — From a misapprehension 01 
facts, I did a very foolish thing on Tuesday. I heard that 
the managers of election were arrested, the ballot-box 
seized, and an armed party were in line, near the court- 
house. I hastened to town. On the way, I met many 
persons, white and black; all I could get to stop said they 
were going for arms. 

On reaching the street, I inquired of several gentlemen 
about the disturbance ; had no intelligible answer, and, 
without due reflection, came to the conclusion that it was a 
plan previously arranged, and that a collision with the ne- 
groes was inevitable and speedy. I selected you as the pre- 
sumed author of the revolutionary procedure. 

I am satisfied that the arrest of the managers was right 
and lawful ; that the ballot-box was properly cared for, and 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 329 

that the appearance of an armed force of citizens on the 
scene was a mistake, and that you had nothing to do with 
this armed party whatever. 

Therefore, I make the most ample amende in my power; 
withdraw, with pleasure, my language and my action to- 
wards you ; and I now respectfully request the re-establish- 
ment of our former friendly relations. 

Yours, respectfully, A. S. Brown. 

[Reply.] 

Sparta, December 24, 1870. 

Dr. a. S. Brown — Sh-: Your note, by Eddie, is just re- 
ceived, and is entirely satisfactory. I was utterly surprised 
at the time; and now, the misapprehension under which 
you acted, as you inform me, explains it all. I can and do 
truly say that the explanation restores us to our former re- 
lations, and leaves no grudge in my mind. 

Yours, respectfully, Linton Stephens. 

Although Dr. Brown was satisfied of the prudence and 
propriety of Judge Stephens' course in arresting the three 
managers, Governor Bullock pretended not to be. At his 
instance, Judge Stephens was arrested, by a United States 
marshal, on the ground stated in the following letter: 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, January 18, 1871, 

Dear Brother — Soon after 

I got home, I was arrested by a United States marshal, 
under a warrant issued by United States Commissioner- 
Swayze, founded on affidavits of the two negro managers 
of election in this county, charging me with divers viola- 
tions of the Enforcement act — "intimidation," "hinder- 
ing," etc., under the sixth section — and interfering with 
managers of election in the discharge of their duties, etc., 
under the nineteenth section. The marshal called himself 
Seaford. He was very polite — took my word for my ap- 
pearance at Macon next Friday, the 20th instant, and took 
his leave. I asked him to take me before Judge Er.skine, 

31 



330 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

instead of Commissioner Swayze. This he would not do. 
I expected him to decline it, as he did ; but I wanted the 
benefit of his refusal. 

The people here are in pretty much of a stir. George 
Pierce is to go with me to Macon, and carry a power of at- 
torney, which was signed by a large number yesterday, and 
will be signed by more to-day, authorizing him to sign their 
names to any bond that may be required of me ; besides 
George, who knows all the facts of the prosecution of the 
managers, Clarence Simmons and John Culver (one of the 
two dissenting managers) will go over as witnesses, in case 
I shall need them. I don't expect to need them ; for I 
think I shall draw everything but of the two negroes, and 
thus get the concluding argument on the commitment trial. 
If I am not deprived of my voice by a horrible cold, which 
has been developed, or caught, perhaps, since I left you, I 
think I shall make the infernal rascals sorry that they ever 
molested me. I have got thunder in me : I only pray for 
a happy vent 

Judge Stephens, as has been seen, opposed, with his 
might, every new departure from the old landmarks of the 
Constitution. He believed the XlVth and XVth amend- 
ments of the Constitution to be nullities, and that they 
ought to be treated as nullities by the courts. The recon- 
struction acts of Congress, and all the monstrous outrages 
upon popular liberty and local self-government, which were 
germinated of the same spirit and spawn, he loathed and 
spat upon. The following speech, which he made in his 
own defense, in January, 1871, at Macon, when arraigned 
before the United States commissioner on a charge of hav- 
ing violated the Enforcement act, so-called, avouches the 
accuracy of this statement. The reader will concede that 
the wealth of all forensic literature may be searched in vain 
for a performance that surpasses it in point of genuine man- 
liness, civil courage, nervous English, the eloquence of pa- 
triotic fervor, or cogent, compact, red-hot logic. It is a 
demonstration of his whole proposition, "if there be one 
in Euclid: " 



judge linton stephens. 331 

Speech of Hon. Linton Stephens, in Macon, Georgia, on 
THE "Reconstruction Measures," and the "Enforce- 
ment Act" of 1870, Delivered 23D of January, 1871. 

May it please the Court: I know full well that, if your 
Honor is not superior to the average of poor human nature, 
you will find it difficult, if not impossible, to give my defense 
in this case an impartial consideration, and an honest deci- 
sion. The prosecution against me is founded on the course 
which I took in the recent political election, which resulted 
in a victory for my party and a defeat for yours. It is also di- 
rectly in the line of an assault which was lately made against 
me in the newspapers, by the official head of your party in 
this State. I, therefore, recognize in this case di political pros- 
ecution, just as distinctly as I recognize in my judge a most 
zealous and determined political opponent. Yet, sir, there 
are other considerations which encourage me to hope that I 
may obtain, even irom you, that decision which is demanded 
by justice and by the laws. From the personal knowledge 
of you which I have acquired since the beginning of this 
trial, I have discovered that you are a man of decided intel- 
ligence ; and I am told that you are a man of courage. I 
am also told that you, yourself, have been, in some in- 
stances, a victim of political persecution, and an object of 
unjust obloquy. Surely, such a man, with such an expe- 
rience, ought to give a fair hearing to one whose only fault 
is )iot any wrong which he has committed against the laws, 
but the damage which he has inflicted upon a political party. 
My greatest encouragement, however, is derived from my 
confidence in the lawfulness of my conduct and the power 
of truth. To truth, bravely upheld, belongs a triumph 
which cannot be defeated, nor long delayed, not even by 
the intensest prejudices of partisan strife. I am strength- 
ened, too, in the advocacy of truth, on this occasion, by the 
consciousness that, in defending myself, I shall be but de- 
fending principles which are dear to every American, be- 
cause they lie at the foundation of the whole fabric of Amer- 
ican constitutional liberty. Now, sir, unless I am much 
mistaken in the estimate which I have formed of your char- 
acter, will you listen to my defense any the less favorably 
because of the frankness and boldness with which I shall 
present it, 



332 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

I am accused under the Enforcement act of Congress. 

My first proposition is, that this whole act is not a law, 
but a mere legal nullity. 

It was passed with the professed object of carrying into 
effect what are called the XlVth and XVth amendments of 
the Constitution of the United States, and depends on their 
validity for its own. 

These so-called amendments are, as I shall now proceed 
to show, not true amendments of the Constitution, and do 
not form any part of that sacred instrument. They are 
nothing but usurpations and nullities, having no validity 
themselves, and therefore incapable of imparting any to the 
Enforcement act, or to any other act whatsoever. 

I take occasion to say, that I regard the Xlllth amend- 
ment, abolishing slavery, as clearly distinguishable from the 
XlVth and XVth so-called amendments, in the manner both 
of its proposal and of its ratification. The contrast between 
it and them will contribute to make their invalidity all the 
more apparent. It is true, that when the Xlllth amend- 
ment was proposed, ten States of the Union were absent 
from Congress ; but their absence was vohintar}'^ and there- 
fore did not affect the validity of their proposal. It is true, 
also, that the Legislatures which ratified it for these ten States 
had their initiation in a palpable usurpation of power on 
the part of the President of the United States ; yet, it is also 
unquestionably true, that they were elected and sustained 
by overwhelming majorities of the true constitutional con- 
stituencies of the States for which they acted ; they rested 
on the consent of the people, or constitutional constituen- 
cies of the States, and were therefore truly " Legislatures of 
the States." This amendment was ratified by these Legis- 
latures of the States in good faith, and in conformity with 
the almost unanimous wish of the constitutional "Peoples." 

How different is the case of the XlVth and XVth so- 
called amendments ! If these are parts of the Constitution, 
I ask. How did they become so ? Were they proposed by 
Congress in a constitutional manner? 

In framing and proposing them, every State in the Union 
was entitled, by the express terms of the Constitution, to 
be represented in speech and vote by "two Senators" and 
' ' at least one Representative. ' ' But ten States of the Union 
were absent. This time their absence was not voluntary, but 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 333 

compulsory: when they were claiming a hearing, through 
their constitutional representatives, they were driven away, 
and denied all participation in framing and proposing these 
amendments ! Was this a constitutional mode of proposal ? 
I say, it was an unconstitutional mode, and that the pro- 
posal was, ah initio, null and void. 

But how stands the ratification of these so-called amend- 
ments? To say nothing about the duress of bayonets and 
Congressional dictation, under which the ratification was 
forced through the ratifying bodies in the ten Southern 
States, the great question is, Who were these ratifying 
bodies? Were they Legislatures of the States? They were 
not. They were the creatures of notorious and avowed Con- 
gressional usurpation. They were elected, not by the con- 
stitutional constituencies of the States, but by constituen- 
cies created by Congress, not only outside of the Constitu- 
tion, but in palpable violation of one of its express provi- 
sions. The suffrage, or political power, of the States is not 
delegated to the General Government by the Constitution ; 
but, on the contrary, its reservation, by the States, is ren- 
dered exceedingly emphatic by that provision of the Con- 
stitution which, instead of creating a constituency to elect 
its own officers — President, Vice-President, and pnembers of 
Congress — adopts the constituencies of the States, as regu- 
lated by the States themselves, for the election of the most 
numerous branch of- their own Legislatures. 

Ten of the ratifications, which were falsely counted in 
favor of these miscalled amendments as ratifications by Leg- 
islatures, were only ratifications by bodies which had their 
origin in Congressional usurpation, were elected by illegal 
constituencies, unknown to the Constitution of the United 
States, or the Constitutions of the States, and were organ- 
ized and manipulated under the control of military com- 
manders who claimed and exercised the jurisdiction of pass- 
ing upon the election and qualification of their members. 
Can these joint products of usurpation, fraud, and force be 
palmed off as Legislatures of States ? Can ratifications by 
them be accepted as ratifications by Legislatures of States? 
Can falsehood thus be converted into truth by the thimble- 
rigging of Presidential proclamations ? These bodies were, 
indeed, set up by their usurping creators as Legislatures 
for and over States ; but until the known truth of recent his- 



334 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

tory can be blotted out by the mere power of shameless as- 
sertion, they cannot be recognized as Legislatures of States. 
The Parliament of Great Britain is a Legislature /<^;- and over 
poor, down-trodden Ireland ; but what Irishman will ever 
recognize it as the Legislature of Ireland ! 

The false, spurious, and revolutionary character of these 
ratifying bodies is rendered still more glaring by the fact 
that, supported by the bayonet, they subverted, or rather 
repressed, the true, legitimate Legislatures of all the States 
where reconstruction was applied. That such Legislatures 
existed in these States, and are indeed still existing, is de- 
monstrable from the facts, viewed in the light of either of 
the two theories of secession — that of its validity or inva- 
lidity. On either theory, the seceding States remained 
States. On the one theory, they were States of the Union ; 
on the other, they have remained all the while States in the 
Union. The Supreme Court of the United States, in the 
recent case of White vs. Texas, speaking through Mr. Chief 
Justice Chase, held that secession was invalid, and that the 
States which had attempted it remained, and still are, States 
m the Union. 

A State is not a disorganized mass of people: it is an or- 
ganized political body. It must have a constitution of some 
sort, written or traditional. Being an organized body, it 
must have a law of organization, or composition, or consti- 
tution, defining the depositary of its political power. Where 
there is no such constitutional, or constituting, or organ- 
izing, or fundamental law, there can be no organization — 
no State. These ten States, then, which seceded, or at- 
tempted to secede (as the one theory or the other may be 
held), have all the while had Constitutions. In point of fact, 
each of these has ever been a written Constitution, giving 
the ballot to defined classes of citizens who are known as 
the constitutional constituency of the State. This consti- 
tutional constituency is entrusted by each of these constitu- 
tions with power over the constitution itself, in modifying 
or changing it, and, of course, in modifying or changing the 
organization or composition of the constitutional constitu- 
ency. This constitutional constituency is the depositary of 
the highest political power of the State. Any change made 
in the Constitution or organization of the State, or in the 
composition of the constitutional constituency, as it may ex- 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 335 

ist at any time, without the concurrent action of the consti- 
tutional constituency itself, is revolutioti : it is disorganiza- 
tion ; it is the subversion or suppression (as it may prove 
permanent or temporary) of one organization, and the sub- 
stitution of any other ; it is the abolition (permanent or tem- 
porary) of the old State, and the introduction of a new one. 

Each of these ten States, in 1865, at the close of the war, 
being then a State, had a Constitution and a constitutional 
constituency linked back b)^ unbroken succession to the 
Constitution and constitutional constituency as they existed 
before secession. Secession made no break in the chain. 
.The provision which was put in the Constitution at the time 
of secession, connecting the State with the Confederate 
States, instead of with the United States, as its Federal 
head, is wholly immaterial to the present purpose. On the 
one theory, it was simply void, and left the organization of 
the State, the Constitution, and the constitutional constit- 
uency intact. On the other theory, being valid, it modified, 
but did not impair, the integrity of the State organization. 
All this follows from, or rather is comprehended in, the one 
proposition that these ten States have never lost their char- 
acter as States. 

Each of these ten States, being a State at the close of the 
war, in 1865, stands now de jure, just as it stood then, un- 
less it has, since that time, been changed by the action of 
its constitutional constituency. I think each of them ivas 
so changed in the latter part of that same year. In each 
of them, a convention was elected by a large and unques- 
tionable majority of the constitutional constituency (al- 
though a portion of them were excluded from voting) for 
the purpose of modifying the Constitution. These conven- 
tions repealed the ordinance of secession, abolished slavery, 
and made some other changes in the several Constitutions, 
but, in most of the States, left the constitutional constit- 
uencies just as they stood before. In conformity with the 
Constitutions, as last modified by those conventions, each 
of the States was speedily provided with a complete gov- 
ernment, consisting of a legislative, executive, and judicial 
department. It was by the Legislatures thus formed that 
the Xlllth amendment of the Constitution of the United 
States, abolishing slavery, was ratified. 

Since that time, no change has been made in the organi- 



33^ BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

zation of any of these States, with the co-operation or con- 
currence of the constitutional constituencies. Only very 
small minorities of the constitutional constituencies have 
co-operated in the work of reconstruction. It is a notori- 
ous and unquestionable fact, that an overwhelming majority 
of them, in each of the States, have been steadily and un- 
swervingly opposed to it, and have voted against it, when- 
ever they have voted at all. 

The clear result, in my judgment, is that each of these 
States now stands dc jun\ just as she was left by the action 
of her convention in 1865, with a complete government, 
formed under the Constitution of that year, including a 
Legislature w^hich still constitutionally exists, and is capa- 
ble of assembling any day, if it were only allowed to do so 
by the withdrawal of the bayonet. But she stands dc facto, 
suppressed by a government originated and imposed on her 
by an external power, and supported alone by the bayonet. 
Such a government is the embodiment of anti-republican- 
ism and despotism. Under just such a government, Ire- 
land is writhing and Poland is crushed. 

Is it not now demonstrated that the bodies which ratified 
the so-called XlVth and XVth amendments, in the name 
of these ten States, were the revolutionary products of ex- 
ternal force and fraud, displacing the true Legislatures which 
alone could have given a constitutional ratification ? 

The so-called amendments, then, have been neither con- 
stitutionally proposed nor constitutionally ratified. How 
can they form parts of the Constitution ? 

A successful answer to this question would long ago have 
brought that peace and harmony which can never come 
from might overbearing right. Instead of giving such an 
answer, the authors of these measures have sought to 
drown reason and argument in clamorous charges of vio- 
lence and revolution against the victims, not the perpetra- 
tors, of those crimes. 

But an answer has at last been attempted from an unex- 
pected quarter. Strangely enough, it comes from one 
who has greatly distinguished himself by the vigor and 
ability with which he has denounced the whole scheme of 
reconstruction as a revolutionary usurpation and nullity; 
and, still more strangely, he adheres to that denunciation, 
while now arguing that these so-called amendments — the 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 337 

creatures and culminating points of that reconstruction 
scheme — are valid parts of the Constitution. Such a con- 
clusion from such a beginning! And yet, he is hailed by 
his new allies as a very Daniel come unto judgment. They 
were in a sore strait for an argument. 

He says these so-called amendments have become parts 
of the Constitution, because they have been proclaimed as 
such by the power which, under the Constitution, has the 
"jurisdiction" to proclaim amendments. 

There has been much .said, sir, about issues which are 
"dead:" surely here is one which is not only alive, but 
very lively. Let Americans hear and mark it : The Con- 
stitution of the United States can be changed — can be sub- 
verted — by Presidential proclamation ! I once knew a man 
whose motto was, that a lie, well told, was better than the 
truth, because, he said, truth was a stubborn, unmanagea- 
ble thing ; but a lie, in the hands of a genius, could be 
fitted exactly to the exigencies of the case ; but even he 
admitted that the lie must be zvcll told, or it would not 
serve. If it should appear to be a lie, it would be turned 
from a thing of power into a thing for contempt. There 
has been progress, sir, since that man taught. It is now 
discovered that a known, proveti lie is as good as the truth, 
provided it can only get " proclaimed " by a power having 
"jurisdiction" to proclaim it! I, sir, know of no power — 
either on the earth, or above it, or under it — that has "ju- 
risdiction " to " proclaim " //f.i- ! Nay, sir, I know of no 
power which has jurisdiction to proclaim amendments to 
the Constitution. According to my reading of that instru- 
ment, amendments constitutionally proposed "shall be 
valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of the Constitu- 
tion, when ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths 
of the several States, or by conventions in three-fourths 
thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may 
be proposed by the Congress." The ratification by three- 
fourths of the States, acting through their Legislatures or 
their conventions, sets the seal of validity on the amend- 
ment and makes it a part of the Constitution. Nothing 
else can do it. It must be a true ratification by a true Legis- 
lature, or a tme convention of the State. A false ratifica- 
tion by a true Legislature of the State will not do. A true 
ratification by a spurious Legislature will not do. The va- 



338 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

Hdity of the amendment, and its authority as a part of the 
Constitution, are made to depend upon the historic tnitJi of 
its ratification as required by the Constitution. Proclama- 
tions of falsehoods from Presidents, or from anybody else, 
have nothing to do with the subject. This is plain doctrine, 
drawn from the Constitution itself. The validity of the 
Constitution, in all its parts, depends upon the facts of their 
history. 

But, according to this new discovery, the President of the 
United States can subvert the whole Constitution, and make 
himself a legal and valid autocrat, by simply " proclaiming" 
that an amendment of the Constitution to that effect has 
been proposed by two-thirds of each house of Congress, and 
ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the States, 
although it may be known of all men that there is not one 
word of truth in the proclamation. The President of the 
United States can legally convert himself into an autocrat 
by his own proclamation. Theories are quickly put into 
practice in these days. Let the country beware ! 

We are also told by this new Daniel, not only that the 
usurpation has become obligatory by its success, but there 
is no hope of getting rid of it ; for he says it cannot be 
changed without another amendment, ratified by three- 
fourths of the States, and that there is no prospect of get- 
ting these three-fourths. Wonderful ! Why, he himself 
has taught us that the whole thing may be accomplished by 
a Presidential proclamation. We have only to elect a Dem- 
ocratic President, and let him "proclaim " that a new amend- 
ment, abolishing the XlVth and XVth, has been duly pro- 
posed and duly ratified, and the thing is done. That, sir, 
would be the way taught by this new light; but it would 
never be my way. I do not propose to walk in the ways of 
falsehood : I prefer truth, because it is nobler and grander. 
I believe, also, that, w^hen it is supported by true and bold 
men, it is always more powerful. My way would be to elect 
a Democratic President, and let him treat the usurpation as 
a usurpation and a nullity, and let him withdraw the bayonet 
and "proclaim" that the revolutionary governments in 
these ten States would not be supported by him, but that 
the constitutional republican governments which now exist 
here would be left free to rise from their state of forcible 
repression, and do their natural and legitimate work of true 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 339 

restoration, real peace, sincere and cordial fraternity. The 
whole problem is solved by the simple withdrawal of the 
bayonet. 

I have now shown that the XlVth and XVth amendments 
do not form any part of the Constitution, and thus have 
made good my first position, that the whole Enforcement 
act, which depends solely upon them for its validity, is not 
a law, but merely a legal nullity. 

My second position is that, even if the so-called XlVth 
and XVth amendments were valid, yet all those parts of 
die Enforcement act, claimed as applicable to my case, are 
utterly "outside" of them, and (being confessedly outside 
of the Constitution, apart from them) are unconstitutional, 
and not binding as laiv. 

The XlVth amendment, and the small part of the En- 
forcement act relating to it, have no relevancy to this pros- 
ecution, and I shall say nothing further about them. 

Those parts of the act, claimed as applicable to my case, 
rest solely upon the XVth for their validity ; and, in order 
to see whether they are outside of it or not, it becomes 
necessary to know what are the terms and extent of the 
amendment. 

The effect of its terms is strangely misapprehended. It 
seems to be regarded as a thing which, by its terms, secures 
the right of suffrage to the negro, and empowers Congress 
to enforce that right. This is a total and most dangerous 
mistake. Here is the amendment; it is not longer than the 
first joint of my little finger: 

"Section i. The right of citizens of the United States 
to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, 
or by any State, on account of race, color, or previous con- 
dition of servitude. 

"Sec. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this 
article by appropriate legislation." 

This is the whole of it. Now, sir, I defy refutation, when 
I affirm that, by these terms, the right of suffrage is not 
conferred upon, nor secured to, any person or class of per- 
sons whomsoever. The whole is simply a prohibition on 
the United States, and the several States. The United 
States, in legislating for the District of Columbia or a Ter- 



340 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

ritory, and the several States, in regulating their suffrage, 
each for herself, are prohibited from denying it to anybody, 
or abridging its exercise on either one of the three grounds — 
race, color, or previous condition of servitude — but are left 
perfectly free to abridge it or deny it on any other ground 
whatsoever — sex, female or male, ignorance or intelligence, 
poverty or wealth, crime or virtue, or any other of an in- 
numerable multitude of other grounds. In point of fact, 
the right is denied, both by the United States and by each 
one of the several States, on many of these other grounds, 
and the denial is enforced under heavy penalties, not only 
by the laws of the States, but by this very Enforcement act 
itself. To say that the right is conferred on or secured to 
anybody, because it cannot be denied for any one or all of 
three reasons out of an indefinite number of possible and 
usual reasons, is simply absurd. As well say that a plat of 
ground is fenced or secured from intrusion by putting a wall 
on one of its many sides, leaving all the ^//zrr sides perfectly 
open. A right is not conferred or secured by a law when 
it can be denied without a violation of that law. 

This brings me to the crucial test of my second position. 
Whether I have violated any provisions of the Enforcement 
act or not, it is at least certain that I have not violated the 
XVth amendment. It is affirmatively proven, by the testi- 
mony of the two prosecutors in this case — the two negro 
managers of election — that I did not object to, or in any 
manner interfere with, any vote on the ground of either 
race, color, or previous condition of servitude. It is mani- 
fest, then, that if I have violated any part or parts of the 
Enforcement act, such part or parts are "outside" of the 
amendment, and unauthorized by it, since I have not vio- 
lated the amendment itself. I have not violated the amend- 
ment, even if its prohibition reached private citizens, instead 
of being confined, as it plainly is, to the United States and 
the States severally. 

The truth is, \\\2X far the greater part o{ \X\& Enforcement 
act is "outside" of the amendments which it professes to 
enforce. This act presents another live and very lively issue 
to the people of this country; and already are the thunders 
of opposition heard from Republican as well as from Dem- 
ocratic quarters. Under the pretense of restraining the 
United States and the several States from denying or abridg- 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 341 

ing the right of suffrage on account of race, color, or pre- 
vious condition of servitude, this act takes control of the 
general and local elections in all the States — seizing the 
whole political power of the country, and wielding it by the 
bayonet ; and fills up pages of the statute-book with new 
offenses and heavy penalties leveled, not against the United 
States or the several States, or their officers, by whom alone 
the XVth amendment can possibly be violated, but against 
private citizens. The Alien and Sedition acts, which, by 
the power of their recoil, exterminated their authors, were 
not equal to this act, either in the nakedness or the danger 
of their usurpation. If this act shall prevail and abide as 
law, then our heritage of local self-government, lost to us, 
will pass into history, and there stand out forever a glory 
to the noble sires who wrung it from one tyranny, and a 
shame to the degenerate sons who surrendered it to another. 

My third and last position is, that even if the Enforce- 
ment act were valid in all its parts, yet I have not violated 
any one of them. I am accused under its fifth and nine- 
teenth sections. 

The fifth provides a penalty against ' ' preventing, hinder- 
ing, controlling, or intimidating, or attempting to prevent, 
hinder, control, or intimidate," any person from voting, "to 
whom the right of suffrage is secured or guaranteed by the 
XVth amendment." I have already demonstrated that the 
"XVth amendment secures or guarantees the right of suffrage 
to nobody whomsoever. It is impossible, therefore, that I 
am, or that anybody ever can be, guilty under tJiat section. 

But again : The testimony utterly fails to show that I in- 
terfered in any way with the voting of any person legally 
entitled to vote, or, indeed, with the voting of any person 
whomsoever. It was incumbent upon the prosecution to 
show what persons, if any, and that they were persons en- 
titled to vote. The Enforcement act itself inflicts a penalty 
on all persons who vote illegally, and, of course, cannot in- 
tend to punish the prevention or hindrance of illegal voting. 
The attempted proof, as to my interference with voters, re- 
lates to four persons only. It fails to show that either one 
of the four was a person entitled to vote ; it fails to show 
that three of them did not actually vote ; it fails to show 
that any one of them offered to vote or even desired to do 



342 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

SO ; it fails to show that any one of them heard me make a 
single remark, saw me do a single act, or was even in my 
presence from the beginning to the end of the three days' 
election. 

As to the remark which I made to a small crowd, about 
prosecuting all who should vote without having paid their 
taxes, I have this to say : In the first place, it is not shown 
who composed that crowd, nor that a single one of them 
was a person entitled to vote. In the next place, the re- 
mark was a lawful one ; for it was simply the declaration of 
an intention, not to interfere with legal voters, but to prose- 
cute cnmiiials ; and, therefore, cannot be tortured into a 
threat in any legal or criminal sense of that word. A threat, 
to be criminal, must be the declaration of an intention to 
do some unlawful act; and it never can be unlawful to ap- 
peal to the laws. 

I pass to the charge, under the nineteenth section, that I 
interfered with the managers of election in the discharge ol 
their duties, by causing their arrest under judicial warrant. 
That part of the nineteenth section which is invoked against 
me is in these words : "Or interfere in any manner with any 
officer of said elections in the discharge of his duties." 

My first answer to this charge is, that the managers were 
arrested, not in the discharge of their duties, but in the vio- 
lation of one of the most important of them — one prescribed, 
not only by the Constitution of the State, but by this very 
Enforcement act itself: for the act made it their duty to re- 
ject all illegal votes, and provided a penalty for receiving 
them. These managers had received, and were still receiv- 
ing, the votes of persons who had not paid their taxes oi 
the year next preceding the election, as required by the 
Constitution of this State. The testimony shows that this 
fact was fully proven, and not denied by them, on the com- 
mitment trial before the magistrate. The reply to it then 
was, and now is, not a denial, but a justification, on two 
grounds: one of these grounds was, that the oath which 
they had taken, under the Akerman Election act, required 
them to let every person vote who was of apparent full age, 
was a resident of the county, and had not previously voted 
in that election. They said then, and it is now said again 
here, that they could not inquire into the non-payment of 
taxes, or any other Constitutional qualification for voting, 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 343 

except only non-age, non-residence, and previous voting in 
that election ; and yet, a man who was of full age, and a 
resident of the county, and who had not previously voted, 
was excluded by these same managers on the ground that 
he was a convicted felon. Their own action in excluding 
the felon is utterly inconsistent with their construction of 
the obligation of their oath. The oath, as construed by 
them, and now construed here by the prosecuting attorney, 
is in plain conflict with the Constitution, and is, therefore, 
void, and could not relieve them from their Constitutional 
duty to exclude all who had not paid their taxes. The first 
ground of the managers' justification, therefore, fails. 

Their other ground was, that the unpaid tax of those 
whom they had allowed to vote without payment of taxes 
was only poll-tax, and that the poll-tax had been declared 
by the Legislature to be illegal and unwarranted by the Con- 
stitution, and its further collection suspended. 

The fact that it was only poll-tax does not appear from 
the evidence before your honor, but I admit it to be true. 
I did not come here to quibble : I am here to justify my 
conduct under the law, on the truth as it exists, whether 
proven here or not. My answer is, that this declaratory 
act of the Legislature is false, unconstitutional, null and 
void. The act is but the opinion of the Legislature, con- 
cerning the constitutionality of a previous act of 1869, im- 
posing the poll-tax of that year. That act is before me, 
imposing a poll-tax of one dollar per head "for educational 
purposes," using the very words which are used by the Con- 
stitution itself in defining the purpose for wdiich poll-taxes 
may be imposed. Now, sir, the question which I ask is, 
What is it that makes tliis act "illegal" or unwarranted by 
the Constitution? Surely it is not made so by the subse- 
quent declaration of the Legislature, put forth just before 
the election, to serve a palpable, fraudulent, party purpose. 

The Legislature is not a court; but, on the contrary, it 
is expressly prohibited by the Constitution from exercising 
judicial functions, and its declarations concerning the con- 
stitutionality of legislative acts have no more authority 
than those of private citizens. The single question, then, 
is whether the declaration in this case is trjic. The Legis- 
lature assigned its reason for the opinion it gave. What is 
that reason ? It is, that the Constitution limits the imposi. 



344 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCI! OF 

tion of poll-taxes to educational purposes ; and that when 
the poll-tax in question was imposed, there was no system 
of common schools or educational purpose to which it could 
be applied. Therefore, they said its imposition was "ille- 
gal and unwarranted by the Constitution." They said it 
was unwarranted by the Constitution to provide the money 
before organizing the schools to which the money was to 
be applied ; that is to say, the only constitutional way to 
organize the schools was to go in debt for them ! I lack 
words, sir, to properly characterize the silliness of this reason. 
But, curiously enough, the Constitution itself took the 
very course which these sapient legislators declared to be 
illegal and unwarranted by the Constitution. It provided 
money and devoted it to these very common schools, which 
were still in the womb of the future at the time of its adop- 
tion. It dedicated to that purpose the whole educational 
fund which was then on hand. Therefore, I say, this de- 
claratory act is not only false, but is in the very teeth of the 
Constitution itself. Mark you, sir: it did not repeal, nor 
attempt to repeal, the poll-tax: it only suspended its collec- 
tion. But, I say, if it had been a repeal in terms, instead 
of a mere suspension, it could not change the case as to the 
right of a person to vote without having paid the tax. The 
constitutional requirement is, that "he shall have paid all 
taxes which may have been required of him, and which he 
may have had an opportunity of paying agreeably to law / 
for the year next preceding the election." The poll-tax 
Avas required in April, 1869, and continued to be required 
up to the passage of the aforesaid false declaratory act in 
October, 1870 — a year and a half During all that period, 
tax-payers had "opportunity" to pay it. On the day of 
election, then, any man who had not paid his poll-tax for 
1869 stood in the position of not having paid a tax which 
had been required of him, and which he had had very many 
opportunities of paying agreeably to law. He stood clearly 
within the letter of the constitutional disqualification for 
voting. He stood also within its reason and spirit, for its 
true intention was to discriminate against the citizen who 
should not have discharged a public duty for the year next 
preceding the election. Nothing but payment could remove 
from him the character of a public delinquent. Legislative 
remission of the tax cannot serve the purpose, for he still 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 345 

Stands, after that, as a man \\'ho Jias failed in a public duly. 
The most that can be said for him is, that after the repeal, 
the tax ceased to be required of him ; but the only material 
facts — that // had been required, and could have been paid, 
but had iH^t been paid — remain unaltered. 

The managers, then, in receiving the votes of persons who 
had not paid their poll-tax were not in "the discharge of 
their duties. " Whether they tJiougJit so is not the question. 
If they were really wrong, then I was riglit ; and surely I 
am not to be punished for being right. There was no inter- 
ference with them in the discharge of their duties. 

But again: even if I Avere Avrong in the opinion which I 
entertained of their duty, j'et I did not interfere with them 
unlaii'fidly. The whole context of that clause, in the nine- 
teenth section, under which I am accused, shows that the 
interference contemplated is an unlazvful interference — es- 
pecially the words which come immediately after it: "Or 
by any of such means or ^///^7' unlawful means," etc. This 
word "other" shows, conclusively, that all the means con- 
templated were only such as were of an unlaivful character. 
This would be implied in construing any penal statute, even 
if it were not expressed ; for the universal ruleof construc- 
tion for penal statutes is to construe strictly against the 
prosecution, and liberally in favor of the accused. Is it pos- 
sible that any judge can have the hardihood to hold t|hat it 
was the intention of this Enforcement act to impart to man- 
agers of election the sacred character of Eastern Brahmins, 
making them too holy to be touched even for their crimes ? 
Surely it was not intended to give them greater sanctity 
than belongs to peers of the British Parliament, or to legis- 
lators in our own country, while engaged in legislation. 
Notwithstanding all the high privileges accorded to them, 
all of these are subject to arrest in any place, at any mo- 
ment, under a warrant charging breach of the peace or fel- 
ony. Was it intended to protect these managers from im- 
mediate accountability for all felonies which they might 
commit during three whole days? Until tins shall be held 
as the intention of the Enforcement act, it is impossible to 
maintain that I have violated it in any particular whatever. 

The Constitution declares that "the right of the citizen 
to appeal to the courts .shall never be impaired. " My whole 
offense, sir, is this — that I appealed to a court of covipetcnt 

32 



34^ BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

jurisdiction! I devoutly believed that I was right in my 
opinion of the law. I believe so now ; but, whether I was 
right or wrong in my opinion, who will dare to say that I 
was wrong in testing that opinion — not by the strong hand, 
but by appealing to a court appointed by the Constitution 
for the very purpose of deciding the question ? That court 
decided that I was right; and the "interference" which 
followed, sir, was the interference, not of myself, but of the 
lazv, as expounded and administered by a judicial tribunal. 
Moreover, sir, the decision of that tribunal stands as the 
law of the case until it shall be reversed according to law. 
These managers were charged with felony under the laws 
of this State. Was it a crime for me to seek a judicial in- 
quiry into the truth or probability of such a charge? I 
suspect, sir, that my real crime, in the estimation of my 
prosecutors, is, that the judicial interposition invoked by 
me had the effect of preventing numerous repetitions of a 
crime which would have done signal service to their political 

party. 

If angry powder demands a sacrifice from those who have 
thwarted its fraudulent purposes, I feel honored, sir, in 
being selected as the victim. If my suffering could arouse 
my countrymen to a just and lofty, indignation against the 
despotism which, in attacking me, is but assailing law, 
order, and constitutional government, I would not shrink 
from the sacrifice, though my ^/^^^/ should be required in- 
stead of my liberty! 

The doctrine of constitutional popular liberty, so truly 
and so boldly set forth in the foregoing speech, has, since 
its delivery, been indorsed in an exhaustive decision of the 
Supreme Court of the United States. That decision is but 
the commentary whereof this speech is the text. 

It is a proof of the stupidity of the commissioner, and 
the madness of the times, to add that Judge Stephens \Vas 
committed to answer the alleged charge before the United 
States District Court, at Savannah. He gave bond and 
security, voluntarily and eagerly tendered to an hundred 
fold over the amount nominated in the bond. The grand 
jury, in the Federal court, ignored the charge, and there 
the infamous prosecution was dropped. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 347 

[From A. H. S. to L. S. ] 

Crawfordville, January 27, 1S71. 

Dear Brother — I have just received, by the express, 
your letter of }-esterday. I was exceedingly interested in 
reading it, and was highly gratified at the whole. Your 
reporter must have been my friend McGuire. I was, as I 
told you before, not disappointed at the result at all; and 
I repeat, I think the ultimate result will not only add vastly 
to your already high reputation, but do an immense deal of 
good for the cause of truth, right, and the sound principles 
of government. The popular mind needs an awakening 
up. Particular cases have always been the immediate occa- 
sion of all past similar awakenings, and, perhaps, ever will 
be. Most fortunate it is for any man, so far as it relates to 
his fame and distinction, to be the one prominent in the 
case of the av.akening 

The people everywhere look upon it, I think, as the 
greatest thing you ever did. As to the newspapers, they 
really do not understand it; they measure the merits of a 
production of this sort by the extravagance of opprobrious 
words and epithets it contains. I speak of our editors in 
the main. There are some exceptions, but many of them 
don't know where they stand. Their instincts are right, 
but they need an awakening up. It is fortunate you made 

the speech when and where you did — in Macon 

I do hope you will, just as soon as you get through with 
your speech, bring it over. You can go back the same 
night if you wish, but I shall expect you to stay one night, 
at least. Make the preparation of this speech your first 
business, and get through with it as soon as you can with- 
out hurrying the mind : let that act, at all times, in free 
play. I have some ideas of my own about the case, which, 
I suppose, you have presented ; but, lest you may not have 
done so, I wish to give them to you to use in your note, or 
otherwise, as you may think proper, if you approve. I 
have no apprehensions whatever of a conviction ; but if that 
should take place, so much the better for you in respect to 
present, as well as future, true honor, fame, and glory. 
Love to all 

Judge Stephens rarely appeared for the prosecution of 
any case in the courts affecting life. "Blood-money," as 



34^ BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

it has been not inaptly called, he did not covet ; but in the 
case referred to in the succeeding letter, he would have 
taken a fee, if it had been offered him before he was retained 
for the defense. Although the slain, in this instance, was 
his friend, no rule of professional ethics would allow him to 
refuse his services, previously applied for, to the slayer, who 
was likewise his friend: 

Sparta, July 28, 1871. 

Dr. S. G. White — My Dear Sir: When I got home from 
the North, on the i6th instant, I found your letter of the 
4th, in behalf o^ the mother, sisters, and brother of Captain 
Lewis H. Kenan, asking me to represent the prosecution 
for his homicide against J. R. Strother. I had to go right 
off, next morning, to Wilkes court to defend a man charged 
with murder ; and when I got back from there, I had to go 
into an adjourned court, which is still sitting here. 

I have the opportunity to answer you to-day only because 
I am too sick to be in the court-house. Indeed, I am so 
sick that I am availing myself, as you see, of an amanuen- 
sis. I got a telegram at Boston, on the 5th instant, from 
Obadiah Arnold, requesting me to appear in the defense of 
this same prosecution. Acting on my uniform rule of de- 
fending any accused person who applied to me, to the ex- 
tent, at least, of seeing that he had a legal trial — provided 
he secures me a reasonable fee, looking to the nature of the 
case and his ability to pay — I responded to Arnold that I 
would appear for the defen.se. Such was my engagement 
eleven days before I got your message. 

I take this occasion to say, that I presume the mother, 
sisters, and brother of Lewis know, as you do, that he was 
my friend, and that I was his. I was greatly pained at the 
news of his death, and do most deeply lament the event and 
the manner of it. I assure you and them that I shall do 
nothing in the defense beyond my convictions of duty ; and 
the extent to which I may be carried by my views of duty 
will depend upon the developments in the case. 

I trust that my position in this case will not, as it ought 
not to do, cause the slightest interruption of cordial rela- 
tions between myself and those most attached to my la- 
mented friend. Yours, very truly, 

Linton Stephens, 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 349 

[ From L. S. to Colonel Herbert Fielder. ] 

• Sparta, July 29, 1 87 1. 

My Dear Sir — The night after receivnig your very sug- 
gestive letter, in relation to the proper course to be pursued 
by the South, I was suddenly seized with bilious dysentery. 
I am now getting better, and, therefore, will not delay my 
answer; but I am not yet at all well, and, therefore, my an- 
swer must be brief. 

There is great force in your views, and they are on the 
line of wisdom, in my judgment, as they certainly are on 
the line of honor and courage, in the judgment of all hon- 
orable and brave men. There is a great deal, however, in 
the name which is given to a thing — in the mode of putting 
a case. Mr. Calhoun, for instance, killed the most salutary 
doctrine of nullification by calling it )nillification. That name 
gave rise to the great popular outcry against the arrogance 
of a single State nullifying a laiv passed by all the rest. The 
popular voice might have been secured in its favor, if he 
had only called it the State veto : then the idea would have 
impinged upon the popular brain and heart in this form : 
The vice of all governments is excess ; the whole philoso- 
phy of good government consists in checks, which render the 
passage of laws difficult. Hence the beauty and utility of 
dividing the powers of government among tJiree co-ordinate 
and co-equal departments. A logical adherence to the rea- 
son of this division, or to the division as it is actually made 
in the Constitution of the United States, would lead inevi- 
tably to the true and sound conclusion that nothing can ac- 
quire the force of laiv, and be executed as such, unless the 
legislative and executive departments, in all cases, and the 
legislative, executive, and judicial departments, in most 
cases, shall concur in the constitutionality of the measure. 
Each department must be governed by its own convictions 
of the laii\ and dares not to subordinate its own views of 
the Constitution, which is the highest law, to the views of 
any other department, nor to the concurrent views of the 
other two departments. Whenever occasion comes for 
either department to act on the law, it must necessarily act 
on its ozvn constrictions of the law. This is a very familiar 
doctrine when applied to the courts ; but it is equally sound 
and important when applied to the legislative, the executive, 



35C> BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

and to the dtiscn. The right and the duty to judge of the 
law belong to all alike, and, in the case of all, rest upon the 
very same foundation — the necessity of the case: it cannot 
be otherwise. The rule of conduct for everybody is the lazv, 
and nobody can pursue the rule until he first determines 
what the Uiw is. There is, to be sure, a marked peculiarity 
in the instance of the citizen: while he, like all the depart- 
ments of the government, must act on his own convictions 
of the law, when he acts at all, yet he takes the risk of hav- 
ing his views of the law overnilcd by the tribunal appointed 
to determine and administer the law between him and any- 
body else with whom he may have an issue. So he may 
suffer in his person, as well as in his property, for views 
which the appointed tribunal may hold to be ivronir. The 
departments of government are subject to this risk in an 
essentially modified and much more limited degree. The 
individuals who fill them are subject, politically only, to the 
high court of in/peac/nncnt ; and there, the punisJunent (ty.- 
tends only to removal from office and disqualification for 
office. This idea of equality and independence of the three 
departments of government is not well understood ; but it 
is, nevertheless, true, d.\\6. fundamentally important. It is a 
great error to suppose, as is supposed by the small party 
leaders of this day, that the Supreme Court is appointed as 
an expounder of the Constitution for the other departments : 
there is nothing like this in the Constitution. The Supreme 
Court decides cases in law and eqidty ; and even its judg- 
ments in particular "cases," like those of all other courts, 
are void, if outside of its Jurisdiction. If the Supreme Court 
were to adjudge a man to be hung for killing another in a 
private quarrel, nobody would think of respecting the judg- 
ment. It was on this idea that Mr. Jefferson was fully just- 
ified in turning out the prisoners who were under sentence 
for violating the infamous Alien and Sedition acts. The 
courts which pronounced the sentences had no jurisdiction. 
The acts conferred it in terms; but they were null m effect. 
Nor is there any nnschief or rebellion, or revolution in this 
doctrine; on the contrary, there is nothing but the great 
blessedness of triple security against the vice of all govern- 
ments — excess. If I seem to have wandered from my sub- 
ject, the wandering is only seeming — not real : I have only 
been developing one very important branch of a very large 



JUDGE UNTON STEPHENS. 351 

and important idea — the idea of checks on government. A 
people who are content, that the veto of one man shall pre- 
vent a measure from becoming a laxv, certainly could not 
be greatly shocked if the veto of a great sovereign State 
should have the sarne effect — the effect of not nullifying law, 
but of preventing measures from having the validity of laiv. 
My illustration of the importance of nomenclature, and 
the mode oi putting things, has run into great length ; but I 
beg you to excuse its length for the sake of its importance. 
Now, allow me to throw your idea into a different form — 
to put it in a new mode : / should say the South ought to 
take an immovable stand against all "new departures " from 
the true principles of the Constitution, as seen in the time- 
honored creeds of all State-right parties, and as embodied 
and applied to the facts of the situation, in the New York 
platform of the Democratic party. One of the fundamen- 
tal principles is, that all usurpations, all assumptions of pow- 
ers not delegated, all frauds, are nullities, not lazvs ; and 
when such acts assail and suppress, or repress, constitutional 
governments in the States, they are' also ""revolutionary" 
and literally treasonable, if enforced by arms. This is liter- 
ally ' ' levying war against the United States " — ^just as much 
so as if the British army were to attack the State of Massa- 
chusetts ; and when war is levied against any part of the 
United States, by a citizen of any State, he is a literal traitor 
against the United States. The South should not co-operate 
with any party which refuses to stand by the State-rights 
creed, which is notu to be found embodied and organized no- 
where but in the time-honored and unchanged creed of the 
Democratic party. The departurists themselves have taken 
a ?tame which ought to damn them, and will damn them, if 
skillfully used by the true and bold men. Theirs is the blun- 
der of secession over again. We want no secessions — no 
departures — but we want, in a superlative degree, not a divi- 
sion, but a concentration, of all the constitutional forces in 
a grand effort to prevent the war which was waged for the 
preservation of our system of government from being con- 
verted into a false and fraudulent pretext for overthrowing 
it. Whether I have worried you or not, I have at least 
wearied out myself, and must close. I would be very glad 
to hear from you again, and to see your pen enlisted in the 
grand fight. With high appreciation and kindest regards. 
Yours, very truly, Linton Stephens. 



352 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

The hint given in the following letter to his young friend, 
who had just commenced the practice of the law, may be 
useful to older members of the profession. The prisoner, 
whom he defended, and who was acquitted, was charged 
with the crime of murder: 

[ From L. S. to Zeno I. Fitzpatrick, Esq. ] 

Sp.arta, October 29, 1871. 

Of course, I am gratified at 

your account of the estimate which is put upon my speech 
in behalf of Sandy Luther. Let me, however, tell you a 
secret which may not be useless to you as a lawyer. 

While the speech was the thing which struck the crowd, 
and which was also certainly needful to the end in view, yet 
it was the examination of witnesses which laid the indis- 
pensable foundation for the speech, and for the acquittal, 
without striking the spectators as being at all remarkable. 
I made the State's own witnesses show (as the truth was) 
that it was really a case of great forbearance and magna- 
nimity, instead of either malice, or hasty, unlawful resent- 
ment. 

But enough. With kind regards to Colonel Lawson, and 
best wishes to you and the "firm," I am truly 

Your friend, Linton Stephens. 

The following letter is in answer to one written him by 
his life-long friend and college class-mate, Judge Pottle 
(now, 1876, presiding so ably and acceptably over the Su- 
perior Courts of the Northern circuit), wherein he urged 
Judge Stephens to allow his name to be presented to the 
General Assembly for the United States Senatorship ; 

[From L. S. lo Hon. Edward H. Pottle.] 

Sp.akta, October 30, 1871. 

Dear Ned — Your letter was received Saturday night. 
The spirit of friendship which it shows towards your country, 
and towards me personally, is appreciated not one whit the 
less because it was no surprise to me. On the contrary, I 



JUDGE" LINTON STEPHENS. 353 

value it the more highly for the very reaspn that it is in 
exact conformity with what I expected of you. It is a 
pleasure, as great as it is rare, not to be disappointed in 
people of whom we think well. I am not a candidate for 
the United States Senate, nor for any office in the world ; 
nor do I see that any crisis has arisen, or believe that any 
will arise, which can require me to accept office. On the 
contrary, I believe that the great cause, which should now 
command the unselfish devotion of every good man. can, 
just at this juncture, be better served by another, than by 
me, in the position of Senator-elect. I think Herschcl V. 
Johnson is the man. He is no candidate, and knows noth- 
ing of my thoughts on the subject; but he is all right, and 
has 2i poiver peculiar to himself — from the very fact that our 
State was defrauded of her constitutional representation 
when applying therefor, through ///;//, as one of her chosen 
Senators. The other one chosen with him is, of course, 
now out of the question — put so by his physical "disabil- 
ity. " * Johnson, if elected, will not, like poor , and 

, and , go whining to Washington, and beg- 
ging the removal of fraudulent "disabilities," but will de- 
mand his seat as a constitutional right — claim and get a hear- 
ing on that question, and then make a speech which would 
ring through the whole country, and secure the election of 
a Democratic President. He would do that magnificently, 
and that is the thing which just now most needs to be done. 
I know, too, that / should be much more effective in put- 
ting him forward than I could be in asking anything for 
myself It is pre-eminently a time which demands unsel- 
fish and devoted effort for the caitsc, regardless of all per- 
sonal considerations 

Truly, your friend, Linto.n Stephens. 

P. S. — As you say, it is no time for dead-heads: we need 
men. I would prefer to be imrcprcscutcd rather than mis- 
represented ?X all times; and, just at this time, I would pre- 
fer to be unrepresented rather than represented feebly. If 
you can go to Atlanta, do so. Let us all do whatever we 
can, and I believe you can do much. L. .S. 



® Hon. A. II. Stephens was clecled United States Senate, r in l866. 



354 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

[•From L. S. to Samuel Barnett, Esq.] 

Sparta, November 28, 1871. 

Dear Sam — Just a line in behalf of a young friend whom 
I believe to be as capable and deserving as he is needy. 
Malcolm Johnston wishes to retain his position as assistant 
secretary of the Agricultural Society. Please use your in- 
fluence for him, if you can do so consistently with your 
views and obligations. I suggest that you might secure the 
object, by getting a promise beforehand to retain him, from 
the person for whom you may vote as principal secretary. 
If Malcolm retains his place, I shall be very, very much 
gratified. In great haste, 

Your friend, Linton Stephens. 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Sparta, MSrch 4, 1 872. 

Dear Brother — We got home 

the first night after poor Ben Harris was buried. I do miss 
him profoundly. His death is a heavy blow to me. He 
retained his perfect senses and speech to almost the last 
breath. Just before the last, he said, with marked calmness 
and distinctness, that he "trusted in the mercy of God, and 
was not afraid to die." It was said in response to a ques- 
tion put to him by some friend. It was a great saying, 
made, as it was, right in the face of death. He was a man 
of very uncommon virtues and worth. I shall always miss 
him. * 

[From L. S. to Dr. R. H. Salter.] 

Sparta, March 9, 1872. 

My Dear Doctor — My delay in answering your letter of 
the 22d ultimo has been caused by continued ill-health. 
Mary and I got home from Atlanta on the 28th — last Wed- 



*The gentleman, whose death is noted in the preceding letter, was the 
Hon. Benjamin T. Harris, of Hancock — a leading citizen of the county, 
repeatedly elected to offices of trust and honor, and whose virtues and 
w6rth will keep his memory green and fragr.-int in the hearts of those who 
knew him. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 355 

nesday a week ago — about lO o'clock at night, and in the 
midst of a rain. Our carriage failed to meet us at the de- 
pot, nor was the usual public hack there ; nor, indeed, did 
we find there a single human being — neither the railroad 
agent nor anybody else. The night was remarkably dark. 
I never saw a darker one. I got the conductor of our train 
to lock up our baggage in a freight-car, which was standing 
at the depot, and a fellow-passenger, who got off with us, 
stumbled about through the darkness, and found a negro- 
house, and brought out, in great triumph, a lamp — not a 
lantern, mark you, but a naked, feeble lamp. This had to 
be carefully guarded from wind and rain to keep it alive 
through our journey — his destination being the hotel, dis- 
tant about half a mile, and ours, of course, our own house, 
distant a good, or rather a bad, solid mile. Mr. Lewis (our 
fellow-sufferer) had his hands full of his own baggage, and 
Mary, as being the stronger of us two, volunteered to carr)'- 
the remnant of ours (consisting of her bag and a bundle or 
two), leaving me, the invalid, to do the lightest duty \ that 
is to say, the duty of nursing and carrying the light. Well, 
1 found this same office of carrying the light, just as many 
better men have found it before me, to be the most difficult 
of all. I had to make a screen for the lamp, first out of one 
hand and then out of the other, and then out of my hat, ac- 
cording to the changing drifts of wind and rain. By the 
time we got home, I was wet, chilled, and most thoroughl}' 
worried. I was truly angry because the carriage had not 
met us in accordance with the timelv notice which we had 
given of our coming. When we got in the house, we found 
it lighted up, and all the family awaiting our coming. This 
was too bad ! Evidently expecting us, and yet they had left 
us to trudge home, as best we might, through darkness and 
rain ! I met the girls with a cold kiss, and without a word 
of greeting. We soon, however, had the satisfaction of 
finding that Brad had not met us with the carriage because 
he had, in the darkness of the night, run it off from a bridge 
into a ditch, and had turned it over and broken the harness all 
to pieces. 

The upshot of the whole matter was, that I got a cold, 
and quite a backset in my recovery. Yesterday was the 
first day I have really felt like getting well. To-day I feel 
still better; and now I e.xpect to return to Atlanta day after 



35^ BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

to-morrow (Monday), and resume my work there. My sick- 
ness has greatly deranged the plan I had formed for avoid- 
ing conflict in my business at different points. If I had kept 
well, I should now have my Atlanta business at a point 
where I could leave it until the second week of April, and 
could therefore attend to other business which is now press- 
ing at other places, and which I shall have to abandon, un- 
less I can get it postponed. This I hope to do, but it is 
doubtful ; so my employment for the State may not improb- 
ably turn out a losing business to me, in point of money, 
at least; for the business which conflicts with it is in my 
regular circuit of practice, and. if abandoned, may seriously 
diminish my future engagements. But this conflict is dis- 
tressing to me for higher reasons than my own interests ; for 
some of the business which I have to abandon involves the 
life of one man, and almost the whole fortune of another — 
both of whom are begging me to stand by them, and one 
of whom is my dear friend, Colonel Jack Smith. He has 
lately had the misfortune to have his house burned up, with 
all it contained ; and he now has two law-suits, which, if 
they go against him, will almost, if not quite, ruin him I 
am truly distressed. You will doubtless be surprised that 
I do not stand by my friend, and leave the State to get other 
counsel. The public considerations which forbid this course 
are almost absolutely imperative. To explain them would 
require much space, and might not interest you at all. I 
can only say, generally, that there has been much gallant 
volunteering in favor of the State, followed, in every in- 
stance, by a mysterious and very ?/;/gallant backing out, or, 
at least, by a silence which looks like backing out; and it 
is so construed by the people. When the matter was at 
last put into my hands by the Gov^ernor, the general feeling 
and expression was, that it would noiv be put through, with- 
out fear, affection, or favor. To disappoint this general and 
confident expectation would not only damage me personally, 
but, what is much worse, it would destroy public confidence, 
and contribute largely to increase the public demoralization. 
I have made my decision, after taking counsel with, not 

only my own heart and head, but with , and, through 

her, with St. Joseph, and- all her numerous other saints, 

whose very names are unknown to me "We 

all" send love to "you all." 

Yours, affectionately, Linton Stephens. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 357 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Atlanta, March 15, 1872. 

Dear Brother — This allusion to 

politics reminds me to tell you that I think our Governor 
and General Colquitt, and the great bulk of our Georgia 
leaders, are decidedly inclined to the policy of opposing 
Grant with anybody who is most likely to beat him, and are 
also decidedly inclined to believe that he can be most easily 
beaten by a liberal Republican. I believe, also, that Gen- 
eral Toombs is the same way. I just give you these points in 
order that you may know how matters are in our own midst. 
I am opposed to running anybody who will not stand on 
a sound Democratic platform ; but I am in despair. Our 
host is panic-stricken, and wofully demoralized — much more 
so than the Radicals, and cannot be rallied for tJiis campaign. 
My fear and belief are, that the demoralization will be fast- 
ened upon it iox years to conic, if the policy of running a lib- 
eral Republican be adopted; hence, I prefer to run a .sound 
man. In one case, it is defeat, without the loss of honor or 
our army ; in the other case, it is defeat, with a routed army, 
and the panic made chronic 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Atlanta, March 16, 1873. 

Dear Brother — I have received, 

since my return here, an invitation to make the next com- 
mencement oration for Mercer University. I am inclined 
to accept, and give them a discourse on this theme: "The 
Uniformity of Causation — The only Basis of Harmony be- 
tween True Science and Rational Religion." What do you 
think of it? I could give the intellectual world some new 
and striking ideas on that subject. Does the theme strike 
you at all ? If it does not, why, then, I should doubt 
whether my treatment of it would make any real impression 
on thinkers. The uniformity of causation is the very bot- 
tom of the whole system of inductive philosophy; but it 
has not been made to appear as sncJi to the world. The 
proposition that causation is uniform has so many corolla- 
ries, etc M was quite entertained 

by Martin Crawford while she was here. He called, one 



358 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

night, to see me, and sat in our bed-room until bed-time. He 
was in a good vein. She asked him if Governor Smith 
would get back to Atlanta Monday night. He said, in his 
s\o\\', Jesting way: "I don't think he will — he has got oft 
into the country, with nobody but his wife. She don't want 
any ^^ appintuu-nt," you know, and I think Smith is just now 

very fond of that kind of company." 

Affectionately, Linton Stephens. 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Atlanta. April 7, 1872. 

Dear Brother — I was very 

much pleased with your remarks on your editorial life. You 
made it the occasion to strike some very powerful blows. 
By the way, have you seen the late speech of Voorhees? 
It is tycinendous — blasting the fraudulent amendments and 
all the frauds and usurpations, and denouncing the whole 
Radical rule in terms not inferior to Demosthenes against 
Philip. It is grand! That speech, as a platform, would 
be like fire in a sedge-field. Do publish it, entire, in the 
Sun, and praise it in the high terms, which it so richly de- 
serves. His groupings are powerful and thrilling. It was 
a Titan hurling mountains. I had no idea the man had so 
much pozver in him. If the Democratic party want to suc- 
ceed in saving the country, or in the low purpose of even 
getting office, let them rally to Voorhees' speech 

Sparta, April 19, 1872. 

Dear Brother — I suppose Billy 

told you of Croley's acquittal here last week. That was 
very gratifying to me : the case had given me great anx- 
iety. I don't think it will ever bring me a dollar in the 
way of a fee ; but I have the satisfaction of having got oft 
a good fellow — one of "our kin," as we used to call all the 
Paddies we saw on our journey through Pennsylvania, in 
1848. By the way, I have heard of a very sensible remark, 
made by Bishop Pierce, in relation to my speech — the first 
one of mine he ever heard. The remark was in reply to a 
question, on the part of young Tom Pierce — a preacher, 
and nephew of the bishop — as to how my speech could be 



JUDGE LIXTON STEPHENS. 359 

reconciled with the teachings of the New Testament? The 
answer was, "The court-house is a place to hear Imv rather 
than gospel. " 

The following communication from Samuel Lumpkin, 
Esq., the present (1876) accomplished solicitor-general for 
the Ninth Judicial District of Georgia, gives some account 
of the speech referred to in the preceding letter, and his 
impressions of Linton Stephens as .■\n advocate: 

Dear Sir — A compliance with your request to give you 
a statement of the impressions made upon me by the late 
Judge Linton Stephens, as an advocate, involves the per- 
formance of a task at once delicate and responsible. While 
I accede to your wish, it must be understood that what I 
shall say does not pretend to be exhaustive of Judge Ste- 
phens' great power in this respect. Indeed, to do him full 
justice would require a much longer and more intimate ac- 
quaintance with him, and a much closer study of the habits 
and peculiarities of his mind than my years and opportu- 
nities have allowed. 

As an advocate, he had few peers. His whole soul was 
always in the matter of his discourse, and, whether his ulti- 
mate purpose was to please the fancy or convince the judg- 
ment, he rarely failed. As Professor Goodrich observes of 
Sir John Eliot, " His fervor, acting on a clear and powerful 
understanding, gave him a simplicity, directness, and con- 
tinuity of thought, a rapidity of progress, and a vehemence 
of appeal, which reminded one of the style of Demosthe- 
nes." At times, he exhibited a wonderful power of per- 
suasion. It has been written, "Words are things, and in 
the mouth of one who knows what words are, what potent 
things they are ! " Judge Stephens knew well what they 
were, and how to use them. When he chose to call into 
action the better emotions of human nature, he was never 
at a loss; and, as results of this exercise, courts ^nd juries 
have been held spell-bound, and strong men made to weep 
by the winning tones and touching pathos of his speech. 
A distinguished Georgian once said of him, that, though 
almost rugged in his manly face and form, he had in his 
manner all the gentleness and tenderness of a woman ; but 



360 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

this does not constitute his chief characteristic as an orator. 
He possessed, in a far greater degree, the power of com- 
peUing the convictions of men by the force of argument. 
He invariably impressed his Hsteners with the sincerity of 
his own behef in the truth of what he said, and then, in 
spite of opposition, carried Hke convictions to their minds. 

"As rushing down, \\ lien winter reigns, 
Resistless to the shaking plains. 
The torrent tears its way. 
Anil all that Inirs its onward course 
Sweeps to the sea with headlong force," 

so did the power of this man's eloquence sweep away all 
obstacles that stood before him. 

His reasoning was close and strictly anal}'tical. It has 
been .said of Lord Chatham that he had no power "to divide 
a speech into distinct copartments — one designed to con- 
vince the understanding, and another to move the passions 
or the will — but that all went together, conviction and per- 
suasion, intellect and feeling, like chain-shot." Not so with 
our distinguished friend. He had a great faculty for exer- 
cising the "intrinsic, incommunicable power" of stern logic. 
His mind was capable of arranging and classifying the most 
complicated questions, and then presenting them with such 
simplicity that the most unlearned and unskillful readily 
comprehended them. He seldom made a mistake in prop- 
erly dividing the propositions growing out of his subject, 
and he could argue abstractly upon their merits without 
resorting to the employment of passionate appeals to make 
his remarks impressive. When he did unite the two ele- 
ments of logic and persuasion, he achieved the crowning 
glory of his eloquence ; and the leading characteristic of that 
eloquence, in any view, was its force. Whether he rea- 
soned, or appealed to the sympathies, or denounced, it was 
always done forcibly. 

Again : few men had greater power to make a proposi- 
tion appear ridiculous. There is a passage in the speech he 
made in his own defense, at Macon, in January, 1871, before 
the United States commissioner, under the charge of vio- 
lating the Enforcement act (so-called) of Congress, which, 
you remember, splendidly illustrates his almost unequaled 
power and skill to use the weapon of ridicule. I shall not 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 36 1 

transcribe it ; for sure I am that the speech will be pub- 
lished entire in your volume. 

Words cannot describe the influence he exerted over the 
minds of others. It is certain that many, who held opin- 
ions contrary to his, declined to express them in his pres- 
ence — not in anticipation of uncourteous treatment, but of 
certain and overwhelming defeat in the argument. He com- 
pelled them to see things from his stand-point; and it not 
unfrequently happened, in his practice, that opposing coun- 
sel, thoroughly satisfied by his reasoning, vouchsafed no 
reply. 

No man excelled Judge Stephens in remembering facts. 
His mind grasped every detail of the evidence so thor- 
oughly and so accurately that he was never involved in any- 
thing like self-contradiction, or doubt, in stating what had 
been proven, or in drawing his conclusions therefrom. He 
comprehended, without difficulty, the mOst complicated 
testimony, seeing instantly what most men arrived at by 
slow processes. He could, at pleasure, recall any particu- 
lar part of the evidence he required, every fact being ap- 
parently prominent in his mind at the same moment ; and 
he never failed to mention all that went to strengthen his 
side. He seemed peculiarly gifted in seizing upon the 
strong points of his case, in giving every circumstance its 
most favorable significance, and in making available to his 
client's interest every possible view of the entire transaction 
under consideration. Nothing was ever left for associate 
counsel after Judge Stephens had presented the facts of a 
case. 

One of the finest addresses I ever heard before a jury was 
made by him in behalf of Timothy J. Croley, an Irishman, 
charged with murder, and tried in the Superior Court of 
Hancock county, at April term, 1872. While the defend- 
ant was beating a colored man with a pistol, for provoca- 
tion by words, given some two hours before, the pistol fired 
and killed him. It was a case in which the jury might well 
have found a verdict of guilty, upon the idea that the ac- 
cused had exhibited "a disregard of human life," amount- 
ing to criminal negligence. 

The defense was, "Hom- 
icide by misadventure." To avoid conviction for murder, 
it was argued that there was no intention to kill ; nor yet, 

33 



362 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

criminal negligence, because the beating was not such a one 
as would ordinarily result in death — the shooting, it was 
claimed, being accidental. It was conceded by both sides 
that the offense could not be voluntary man-slaughter. To 
escape a verdict for involuntary man-slaughter, and secure 
an acquittal, the defendant sought to justify the battery on 
account of the provocation given, which may be done under 
our statute, the jury having the right to determine whether 
or not the opprobrious words used shall constitute a justifi- 
cation. The deceased had called Croley a "d — d Irish 
dog," and used language to the effect that his mother be- 
fore him was no better than a dog. In commenting upon 
it. Judge Stephens, in substance, said: 

" Gentlemen of the Jury: Let us analyze this insult. In 
the first place, he called this man a dog! Think of the deg- 
radation imputed to a man when he is placed on a level with 
the brute creation ! A man having feelings, sensibilities, 
and pride of character — a man made in the image of his 
God, with a heart, brain, and soul — to be called a d-o-g! 
But this is not all : he said Croley s mother \w2ls no better than 
a dog — that mother who had nursed and watched over him 
in his infancy — his best and earliest friend, whose prayers 
had ascended to Heaven in his behalf ere he was conscious 
of their meaning, and whose love had followed him, in all 
the fullness of its devotion, until her latest breath ! Ah ! 
gentlemen, this was more than human nature could stand. 
It is not wonderful, then, if this man's blood boiled under 
such a provocation, even if it had been no worse. But it 
ivas W'Orse : he called him an I-r-i-s-h dog ! This was a re- 
proach to his patriotism — an insult to the green shores 
of Erin. Would it not be worse to call a man a Georgia 
scoundrel than simply to call him a scoundrel? Would not 
the insult to a colored man be made more offensive by call- 
ing him a n-i-g-g-e-r thief? Then, why was it not worse to 
call Croley an I-r-i-s-h dog ? And this insult was still worse : 
he called him a d — 71 Irish dog ! Not content with degrad- 
ing Croley and his mother to the condition of brutes, and 
reproaching them for their nativity, he uses profanity to 
make his abuse even more emphatic and unendurable. 
What did it matter if two hours Jiad elapsed between the 
provocation and the resentment ? The State's counsel had 
spoken of cooling time : this was an insult about which, the 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 363 

longer a man thought, the hotter he got. If he was 'red- 
hot ' at the time it was given, in two hours he must have be- 
come ' white-hot. ' Croley was called upon to resent it, not 
o : y by every impulse of pride and manhood within him, 
but by his love for the land that gave him birth. He had 
been an unworthy son of the Emerald Isle, had he done 
less. The beating given the deceased was what he deserved ; 
it was his ; he had earned it, and he might have expected 
it. What else could he, or any rational man, have expected 
under the circumstances?" 

The solicitor-general, invoking the decisions of the Su- 
preme Court, in the cases of Brown vs. The State (40 Ga. , 
689), and Kitchens vs: The State (41 Ga., 217), had insisted, 
before the court and jury, that, while the jury are made the 
judges of the law, in criminal cases, they must take that 
law from the court. Here, the great power of Judge Ste- 
phens was expended to its fullest extent. His idea was, 
that the jury were a part of the court, and, as such, had 
legal and constitutional rights, as distinct and as well defined 
as those of the judge; and that it was the duty of each 
branch of the court to earnestly maintain its respective 
rights, just as each of the three co-ordinate departments 01 
our government, while co-operating with the other two, pre- 
serves its independence of them. In defense of what he 
regarded as one of these great rights of juries — one which 
had been purchased and perpetuated by the blood of he- 
roes — he proclaimed that the decisions cited were not lazi\ 
and never conld be lazv, binding upon a five people, though 
repeated by a thousand judges through a thousand years. 
He told the jurors that they were judges of the law, in crim- 
inal cases, by a right older even than Magna Charta, and 
that they were the last conservators of that right, and could 
preserve it inviolate in spite of all the decisions of all the 
courts on earth. In thus addressing these sworn jurors. 
Judge Stephens was battling, not only for Croley, but for 
the establishment of a principle in which he believed with 
all his heart. It has never been my lot to hear a better 
speech. Not Erskine, in behalf of Hardy, could have been 
more grandly impressive. For three hours he commanded 
the attention of every man in the crowded court-room, and 
none were weary when he closed. 

The jury very soon returned a verdict of tiot guilty ! 



364 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

Judge Stephens sometimes exhibited great tact and great 
power in another way: he would make his view of the 
law and facts so convincingly clear that opposition seemed 
unreasonable, and then defy the tribunal addressed to ad- 
judge against him. It was not often he resorted to this 
style of argument, but instances did occur when he used it 
most effectually. 

He was greater, as a lawyer, in civil than in criminal cases. 
The reason was this : from the nature of his mind, he was 
accustomed to regard criminal law as something not to be 
determined by what was written in statute-books and com- 
mentaries, but as a system of natural justice, written by the 
finger of God upon the hearts of all men. He very often 
rested the defense of persons charged with crimes upon 
the validity of principles that I have heard the distinguished 
Georgian, already referred to, speak of as "laws which no 
Legislature made, and which, thank God ! no Legislature 
can repeal." Hence, he did not devote to the study of 
criminal jurisprudence so much time and attention as he 
thought it necessary to bestow upon the profounder and 
more intricate depths of the law regulating "the rights of 
things." While, therefore, he was more impassioned in the 
conduct of criminal causes, he was more learned and more 
logical in the management and argument of civil cases. . . 

I have attempted no eulogy of Judge Stephens ; nor shall 
I, in this connection, attempt any expression of my grati- 
tude for his many kind acts to me, or of that profound sor- 
row with which, in common with every Georgian, I lament 
his untimely death. I feel sure that his countrymen will 
hold in grateful remembrance his truthfulness, his courage, 
his patriotism, and his fidelity to every trust. 

Most truly, yours, Samuel Lumpkin, 

[From L. S. to A. H. S. ] 

Atlanta, April 29, 1872. 

Dear Brother — This morning I got two letters from 
you — one of the 27th and the other of last night. I am 
truly glad that the latest news from poor Pluck leaves room 
for his recovery. By the way, I take this occasion to make 
a confession in relation to Pluck : when I first knew he was 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 365 

dangerously sick, I rather think a wish arose in my secret 
breast — scarcely acknowledged to myself — that his sickness 
should end in death. While I knew that result would give 
you some sadness, yet I thought it would, on the whole, 
be a real relief both to you and the poor dog. I did not 
comprehend how much you were attached to him, no'r how 
deeply you would be pained by his death. Since I have 
learned the real state of the case, I truly hope that he may 
get well, and that the parting between master and dog may 
long be deferred. I feel a new and tenderer interest than 
ever before in the fortunes of poor Pluck. * * Oh, long may 
he wave!" etc. The mutual tie which you have dis- 
closed, as existing between you and your dog, gives me a 

new glimpse into the interior of your present life. M 

has frequently said that you seemed to possess a charm 
against loneliness, and I have felt a concurrence in that opin- 
ion to a greater extent than I allowed myself to express. 
During the last two or three years, while you have seemed 
to enjoy company, and to be quite cheerful, yet you have 
seemed to me to be less dependent on company for your en- 
joyment than you ever were before, and your cheerfulness 
has seemed to be less determinate and less dependent on 
your surroundings. You have seemed to be absorbed in 
your own currents of thought, and to live very much in a 
world of your own, where your purely intellectual nature 
predominated over your emotional, in a degree very unusual 
with you in former days. Now I see, or think I see, that, 
to some extent, I have been mistaken. 

The General is resolute in his purpose to attack the con- 
stitutionality of the legislation passed after the expiration 
of the forty days. He has talked to me about it several 
times — the last time having been about two hours ago. He 
seems to have pretty calmly studied the views I presented 
to him as to what would probably be claimed by the enemy 
as to the logical consequences of the decision, if it should 
be made as he desires it ; and, really, he presents some very 
strong coimter ViQ-ws as to the probable course of the enemy. 
I will give you the strongest one — not precisely as he gave 
it to me, but in the clearer and stronger form (as I conceive 
it) which has been worked out by my own reflection. Mark 
you, the foundation of the whole trouble from that decision 
would be in the material it would furnish for attacking the 



366 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

validity of the election in December, 1870. If we can save 
that election, it upholds everything else, and there is no 
danger. Well, Congress is fully committed to the validity 
of that election. The House has received our members, 
chosen in that election, and the Senate has received our 
Senator, elected by the Legislature which was chosen in 
that election. Grant also refused to back Conley in his in- 
tended resistance to the claims of Governor Smith. Grant 
must have held Smith to be the true Governor, and, of 
course, the present Legislature to be the true Legislature. 
Grant also would have to carry a very heavy load in bring- 
ing back into power the crowd of exposed thieves, who 
bowed and retired, at his own bidding, in favor of what he 
recognized as the legitimate government. True, he might 
.say his recognition was founded on the decision of the high- 
est judicial tribunal in the State, and that he changes his 
course with the change of that decision. But Congress 
could not say this — at least, the House could not — for they 
received our members before any judicial decision had been 
made. To change front on the question would certainly be 
embarrassing, even to such upholders and perpetrators of 
usurpation. They could easily avoid doing so, either by 
saying the first judicial decision was the right one, or by tak- 
ing the true ground, for once, and saying that the election 
does not, by any means, fall within the act under which it 
was held, since the lawful time for the election, having 
passed, the election had to be held at some subsequent time ; 
and this election was undoubtedly the true expression of the 
constitutional eonstitiiency. What do you think of this? I 
shall adhere, / think, to my determination not to raise the 
question in the cases where it would benefit me ; but I shall 
certainly not oppose the General's argument in the case 
where he raises the question against me. I shall not argue 
against my convictions, and I shall give that explanation of 
my silence. But it is nearly night. 

Yours, most affectionately, 

Linton Stephens. 

Judge Stephens' health, never robust, began to fail, per- 
ceptibly, in 1868. Any imprudence in diet, or exposure 
to inclement weather, or severe physical exertion, affected 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 367 

him more or less seriously ; still, he rallied so speedily that 
the increasing frequency and violence of his attacks of illness 
occasioned little of uneasy apprehension even in the minds 
of those most intimately apprised of the fact. His recu- 
perative energies seemed indeed marv^elous ; and when dys- 
pepsia — his lifetime demon — relaxed its grasp and gave re- 
spite to jubilant and playful spirits for a spell, they believed 
it could not otherwise be than that many years of life re- 
mained to him. But the heavy, incessant strain upon all 
his faculties, physical and mental, in the spring of 1872, 
required a power of endurance which his enfeebled consti- 
tution could not supply. Outside of professional business — 
large, onerous, exacting, in his own immediate circuit of 
practice — he was retained, as counsel, by Governor Smith 
to investigate the enormous frauds perpetrated against the 
State during the preceding administration, and to prosecute 
the offenders. Never unmindful of the business of his life, 
nor indolent in the profession of his choice — a profession 
which is said to be " ancient as magistracy, noble as virtue, 
necessary as justice " — he brought to his aid all his resources 
of zeal, fidelity, assiduity, and candor. How well he per- 
formed that difficult office — with what ability, fidelity, and 
conscientiousness — is known to the people of Georgia ; for 
his services then and there rendered — alas ! cut short too 
soon — are among the diamonds that sparkle in the diadem 
of the State. 

It was whilst he was prosecuting these cases in the courts 
that he was invited to address the people on the political 
situation at the capitol. The Presidential election was ap- 
proaching; no Democratic candidate had been nominated. 
Public sentiment was in its formative period — its crysalis 
state. It was his last appearance upon the politcal platform. 
Weary and forworn with the professional work of the day, 
the words he uttered were words of admonition and warn- 
ing. Some present then disputed the history he recited ; 



368 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

others derided the prophecy he made : but all since agree 
that the admonition and the wamitig came from a political 
seer ; and what was prophecy then has ripened into history 
now. Here follows his speech : 

Ladies and Gentlemen — It is a source of real regret that 
bodily weariness and mental lassitude, resulting from close 
confinement, for several consecutive days, in the court-room, 
will subtract so much from the small power which I might 
otherwise have to address you in a manner worthy of the 
great cause and of this intelligent audience. As I must 
husband my strength and resources, I shall not attempt, 
even if I could do so, to entertain your imagination, or to 
amuse you. I come to address the arguments of reason to 
your understanding, and to your hearts, the appeals of cour- 
age and honor. 

There are two great questions which demand immediate 
answers from the Democratic State-rights people of this 
country: the first of these is. Shall the struggle for the es- 
tablishment of Democratic State-rights principles be main- 
tained ; or, shall we abandon that struggle and accept the 
antagonistic principle of unlimited power in the central gov- 
ernment, and its inevitable logical sequence — despotism ? 

There are now two candidates before this country for the 
Presidency — General Grant and Mr. Greeley. What will 
either of these do for the advancement of Democratic State- 
rights principles? And when any many asks me to con- 
template and ponder the policy of supporting either, the 
question recurs, and I cannot refrain from putting it: Is the 
struggle for the restoration of these principles to be main- 
tained? 

What are these two antagonistic principles? State-rights 
on the one hand — Democratic ; and on the other, centralism. 

My friends, have you contemplated the difference between 
the two ? What is State-rights ? What is the essence of it 
in a nut-shell? It is, that while we recognize in the gen- 
eral government all the powers that have been delegated 
to it by the true Constitution, it is none but those that have 
been thus delegated by the true Constitution. All other 
rights are reserved to the States, and the States hold these ; 
that is, all reserved rights, subordinate to no body nor com- 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 369 

bination of men: they are subordinate only to God, who 
gave them. 

Rights are not dependent upon the pleasures of men — 
they are not matters of grace ; and when a man talks to me 
about State-rights that are suborduiatc — which they can ex- 
ercise, subject to the central government, in the exercise 01 
its solemn constitutional obligation to maintain the equal 
rights of citizens — then he is talking of one thing and I of 
another ; he is talking of State-rights that are subordinate : 
I know of no State-rights that are not absolute*, 

What is this antagonistic principle — centralism — urflim- 
ited power in the central government? I care not whether 
that unlimited power is to be exercised by one man, or by 
one thousand: it is no better in one case than in the other. 

The curse of the principle is the Jinliviited nature of the 
poiver! What does it do? Take its works: the tree is to 
be judged by its fruits. It sets aside the government of 
our States at will, and erects in their places others of its 
own creation. It legislates, not for the whole country, but 
for particular States, whenever it chooses to do so; it 
makes a law for the '^ Rebel'' States — no such law for the 
loyal ; it makes a law for Virginia, by name, another for 
Alabama, and one then for Georgia, by name. 

Our fathers fought the Revolution on the principle that 
there could be no taxation without representation. That 
was but one small branch of a larger and a grander princi- 
ple, and that is, that there is no security for good govern- 
ment, unless the men who make the laws, whether they be 
few or many, are subjected to the operations of the laws 
that they themselves make ; and whenever a power, exter- 
nal to Georgia, makes laws for her, to which the law-mak- 
ing power itself is not subject, you have the completion of 
despotism; you have the same sort of government that 
poor Poland enjoys from Russia; you have the same sort 
of government that gallant Ireland disdains to accept from 
England, and struggles under to-night. 

The Democratic State-rights principle is the only divine 
right of government that I recognize on this earth. [Ap- 
plause] I pray God that I may ever be true to His holy 
throne, and to all His good gifts to men ; and I recognize 
among His good gifts, as one of the brightest, the right of 
self-government in every people who are fit to exercise it. 



370 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

Where are the champions who will stand for this God given 
right of self-government? Who will stand with me, for one, 
upon the determination to struggle for its restoration — for 
it is now in the dust — and to struggle on this line, not only 
through the whole "summer," but through the who'e of 
lifetime? I pray that I may die, and be buried out of sight, 
rather than that I should ever live to see the day when my 
own brethren, who have fought with me under this glorious 
banner, shall ever make up their minds to abandon it. [Ap- 
plause.] Which side are you on, and are you in earnest? 

Fellow-citizens, you are all for the maintenance of the 
true principle — the God-given principle — the divine right. 
You are for State-rights — for the supremacy of Democratic 
principles, which, in this crisis, means State-rights, nothing 
else ; Democratic principles mean nothing but State-rights, 
for which Democrats and old Whigs used to fight, until the 
old Whig party received its death-wound, in 1852, when 
General Scott was run by such men as Sumner, Greeley, 
and Morton, and they gave it a weight it could not carry, 
and made it stagger and fall into its grave forever, Mr. 
Greeley is one of the men who killed the old Whig party 
by abolitionism. 

I say Democratic principles now are just simply State- 
rights principles, for which Democrats and old Whigs, up 
to that time, stood shoulder to shoulder ; and for which 
Democrats — it may be now only Southern Democrats — they 
say, we are going to lose our Northern allies ; and if we lose 
them, I never intend to run after them [applause] ; it may 
be. Southern Democrats only are now, and hereafter, to 
contend for these principles; but whether we have been 
Whigs or Democrats, let all men, who have drank from this 
cup of centralism, reconstruction, ku-kluxism and suspension 
of habeas corpus — drank to the dregs and found it exceed- 
ingly bitter — let all those make up their minds now, for a 
lifetime, never to bow down to the power that oppresses us. 

How do these two candidates for President stand in ref- 
erence to these two antagonistic principles — State-rights 
and centralism? I believe that everybody admits that 
Grant is a centralist; and how anybody can doubt that 
Greeley is just as intense a one, and more able, is a matter 
of amazement to me. [Applause.] He has advocated 
every one of these radical, despotic, centralizing measures — 
every one. He has been the leader. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 371 

Ah! some tell me we must ignore the past and stand 
upon the present. I am willing to if^nore any man's past 
and stand upon his present, if I believe that his present is 
right, and that he is sincerely and honestly repentant for 
his past, and intends himself to stand upon his present. I 
won't stand upon any man's present when I have no confi- 
dence in the man himself. But what is Mr. Greeley's 
present? Is it any better than his past? Why, in his very 
letter of acceptance, giving his own interpretation of the 
platform on which he is running, he takes it upon himself 
to group all the things that we hold most dear — State-rights, 
which he does not even deign to designate by that name — 
he says "local government" — the supremacy of the civil 
over the military power, sacredness of habeas corpus, local 
government as against centralism — he groups all these to 
tell us, and he does tell us, that he holds them all subordin- 
ate to what he calls the central government's solemn con- 
stitutional obligation to maintain the equal rights of citizens — 
subordinate to the very power, the very duty, which he 
claims as the authority for the passage of every abomination 
which has disgraced our statute-books, and oppressed lib- 
erty and liberty's sons. [Applause.] 

Do you want to know where the enforcement acts came 
from — the ku-klux acts, the suspension of habeas corp7is ^ 
They came from this very same cry. Mr, Greeley led the 
race — he sounded the key-note. Has he ever taken one 
word of it back? Not one. Don't be deceived, my coun- 
trymen ; for I tell you that your liberties are dependent 
upon your decision of this question. Don't let people de- 
ceive you; he has never taken back one zuord of it; but, on 
the contrary, he takes pains, in his last letter, to rr-assert 
the very quintessence of the principle which was invoked for 
their passage, and *on which he justified and demanded 
them. Is not this the truth? 

What was the ground on which the enforcement of all 
those odious measures was demanded by Butler, by Mor- 
ton, by Grant, by Greeley, by Trumbull, by the whole 
Radical crew? It was this very same plea of solemn con- 
stitutional obligation to maintain the equal rights of citizens. 
That was the party slogan under which they rode over you 
and your rights; and when I hear the same music now, I 
expect to see the same dance follow it. [Applause and 
laughter.] 



372 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

Talk to me about Greeley doing anything to advance 
Democratic principles ! Some folks say that his friends in 
Congress voted against the renewal of the suspension of 
habeas corpus. That is very good. I give them credit for 
that; but I never stopped to count his friends, or learn what 
they did ; my principle of action is, when two men avow, 
equally, the right to oppress me, I shall never stop to count 
the chances whether one or the other shall find it to his in- 
terest to exercise that right of oppression or not. If he 
avows the right, I know he will exercise it whenever he 
finds it to his interest. [Applause.] 

Our fathers declared their independence of Great Britain 
after the Stamp act had been repealed, and they declared it 
because, in the repeal, the right to tax without representa- 
tion was claimed and reserved. After the blow had been 
withdrawn, your fathers fought the Revolution against the 
right of the tyrant to repeat the blow. Mr. Webster truly 
and grandly said: "The Revolution of '76 was fought on a 
preamble." That was just equivalent to saying that it was 
fought on a principle ; and nothing was worth either the 
blood or the money that was spent in the conflict, unless 
the fight was one on principle. Give me principle, and I 
will fight on and fight ever, and die fighting ! But when 
you take away principle, I have no longer any contest ; and 
I say to you, "O Israel, to your tents! " 

Some people say, "Anybody to beat Grant!" "Down 
with Grant ! " I don't say " Down with Grant ! " nor down 
with Greeley, nor down with Sumner, nor down with any- 
body! What I say is, down with radicalism, and every- 
body who supports it, whether it be Grant, or Greeley, or 
anybody else ! I say down with Grant, because he sup- 
ports radicalism. I say up with the true Democratic can- 
didate that will be true to that banner,, because under it I 
am willing to fight; and Democrats and State-rights men 
everywhere will fight with pride, and with honor and en- 
thusiasm, and these are the greatest elements I know of 
success. [Applause.] 

General Grant had quite a respectable set of principles 
when the war closed. Talk about Greeley going on a bond 
for our President, Davis ! So he did ; that was one good 
thing he did ; I give him credit for it ; and I thank God that 
I am capable of giving even the devil his due. When Stan- 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 373 

ton, that arch-fiend, was about to arrest Generals Lee, Gor- 
don, and Cobb, and that noble band that surrendered to 
him — overii'hehned, as they said then — not conquered — and 
I hope to God they may never be conquered — General Grant 
said: "If it is done, I will resign;" and "resign," in this 
case, meant throwing up thirty thousand dollars a year ; a 
tolerably handsome thing, even in the estimation of people 
here, in Atlanta, who are accustomed to seeing and hearing 
of very large operations. Not, fellow-citizens, that I mean 
to intimate that the people of Atlanta have been responsible 
for these large operations. You have gone through the 
ordeal of Bullock's radical, corrupt administration, and, even 
when the bait was held out to you, you have refused it — 
yes, in establishing in your city this very house, where you 
are now assembled. You stood true to honor — you passed 
through the fire. I have found the smell of fire on the gar- 
ments of some; but, thank God! the great bulk of your 
citizens have shown themselves to be firm adherents of honest 
principles: they have gone through this ordeal, and come 
out purified gold. I don't know a body of sounder Demo- 
crats than the Democrats of Atlanta. When I spoke oi 
large operations here, I meant it as no reproach. God 
forbid. 

The man that preserves his virtue under temptation will 
do to be trusted always : the man that preserves it up to the 
time when temptation comes, we simply don't know what 
he will do when it does come. 

General Grant said he would throw up his commission if 
Lee and his brave comrades were arrested. That's a good 
thing ; I give him credit for it. President Johnson sent him 
down here to take a survey of the South, and report on our 
condition. He came; he was in this city ; he was in divers 
central points of our country. He went back and reported 
that we were all right ; that we ought to be restored to our 
places in the Union immediately, without any XlVth or 
XVth miscalled amendments (for that was before they were 
enacted) ; without any reconstruction and Radicalism ; with- 
out any Enforcement act; without any ku-klux laws; with- 
out any suspension of habeas corpus. 

And why was it not done ? Why were we not restored ? 
The Radical oy was raised against it, and again the same 
old arch-fiend, Horace Greeley, headed that cty. Grant quit 



374 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

his good principles, and went over, and became the expo- 
nent oi Greeley's bad ones. This is the greatest objection that 
I have to Grant : that he quit his own principles and went 
over to Greeley's ; and as long as reason maintains her 
throne in me, and the pulsations of my heart permit me to 
live, so help me God, I never intend to follow that man's 
example! [Applause.] 

Democratic principles restored by supporting Grant or 
Greeley ! I would just as soon think of advancing the prin- 
ciples of Christianity by hauling down the banner of Christ, 
and hoisting the colors of Mahomet! [Applause.] 

The combination, or coalition, if you please, made by 
Democrats and Liberals, in Missouri and Tennessee, is 
quoted, and we afe urged to follow the example. The 
proposition that was made by good Democrats and true, to 
accept Judge Davis as a candidate, is quoted. There was 
something in each of these cases to be gained for the ad- 
vancement of Democratic principles in Missouri and in Ten- 
nessee. The combination, with Gratz Brown in the one and 
Senter in the other, stood- pledged \n each State to strike loose 
the fetters of about forty thousand Democratic voters, who 
were then under the iron heel of proscription ; and when 
that was done, these States were in the possession of the 
Democracy. There was some sense in that. Judge Davis, 
on the Supreme Bench, conceived that his solemn constitu- 
tional obligation required him to pronounce sentence of un- 
constitutionality on some of the acts which had been passed 
by Greeley, Grant, and Sumner, to carry out t/ieir ideas of 
constitutional obligation. He pronounced these acts «?v// 
and void. Judge Davis, under his solemn sense of duty, 
held those acts to be revolutionary, unconstitutional, null 
and void. He turned loose Milligan after he had been con- 
demned by a military tribunal to be shot. He was about to 
turn loose McArdle, but Greeley again came to the rescue, 
and Congress, at the crack of his lash, passed a law to pre- 
vent Judge Davis from turning loose any other victim of 
tyranny. 

Judge Davis, God knows, is not all I would have him to 
be; indeed, I never expect to find any human being who is 
up to the standard of perfection — not even those who were 
made last, and therefore made best, of whom the poet 
said: 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 375 

"Auld Nature swears the lovely dears, 
Her noblest work she classes, O ! 
Her 'prentice hand she tried on man, 
And then she made the lassies, O ! " 

Not even these, far above the 'prentice work, can claim 
perfection ; but to compare Judge Davis with Horace Gree- 
ley, and say that one was no better than the other — well, 
it is ungrateful, to say the least of it; and whenever we 
speak thus disparagingly of our friends in the North, and 
say that those there who are battling for our rights are no 
better than those who are helping to oppress us, shall we be 
surprised if our friends in the North continue to fall away 
from us? No people can long retain friends who do not 
treat them right when they do have them. Even the gal- 
lant Voorhees, who has always fought the fight, kept the 
faith — always been true to the flag of Democratic princi- 
ples — is maligned and misrepresented ; and papers and men, 
calling themselves Democrats, charge that he has been 
bought up by Grant, only because he is not willing to take 
a Radical that is just as much a Radical as Grant or anybody 
else. [Applause.] 

What are you going to get by it? Why, I am told, if 
the Democratic party elects Greeley, he will be good to us. 
Give us something ! [Laughter.] What is he going to give 
us? Give us any principles? Where is the principle he is 
going to give? He has not even said that he is going to 
give us anything; but the hope is that he is going to give 
some of us, who are willing to take it, a little share of the 
plunder. [Laughter.] Was there ever a more proper ap- 
plication of the motto, "Fear the Greeks when they are 
bringing gifts?" Fear the Radicals when they are bring- 
ing gifts ; and I tell you that Radicals will never, never give 
you any gifts — only to persuade you away from your prin- 
ciples. Greeley wants you to swap your principles for a 
few pitiful little offices for some people [laughter] ; and I don't 
know whether some people will ever get the offices or not ; 
and I would not care. 

But you say the Democratic party is so much bigger than 
Greeley's little segment, that has to do this great work of 
electing him — and that is not done yet [laughter] — that it 
will swallow up the little Greeley concern ; and it has been 
wittily put : ' ' Can a minnow swallow a whale ? " No ! A 



376 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

minnow cannot swallow a whale! but even a whale, if he 
be passive and float upon the water, without putting forth 
his fin-power, could be floated by a set of little minnows 
into any convenient harbor. And this coalition is never to 
be formed, except upon the condition that all the Democracy 
that has influence is to become passive — to become dormant. 
We are to quit struggling to secure Democratic principles, 
and to go to fighting to secure the election of a Radical. 

Well, I have seen little steam-tugs move great men-of- 
war on the deep ; I have seen them pull them into the har- 
bor : if the man-of-war will only let off its steam and become 
passive, the little tug can take it safely in. And just so, if 
this great Democratic mass will turn off all the Democratic 
steam — Greeley for one tug — one great big tug — Gratz 
Brown a little one over in Missouri — Sumner a tug, too — 
and I have no doubt you will find a tug in Georgia, too. 
These tugs will be perfectly able to land this great Demo- 
cratic leviathan safely on the Radical shore ; and that is just 
where you are going, if you go with Greeley. 

There is nothing in that but a new phase of the "new 
departure. ' ' That was a proposition to sanction all the usurp- 
ations — to quit being Democrats — to radicalize the Demo- 
cratic party, and accept the new principle of centralism — 
unlimited power ; and Greeleyism is nothing but a more vir- 
ulent type of that same disease. God forbid that anybody 
should understand me as intimating that the great number 
of people who have been, like my friend, who so eloquently 
addressed you just now (General Garlington), debating the 
question whether to go for Greeley or not, should be held 
by me as tainted by the Radical party ! Not at all ! I beg 
you not to take the step ; because, if you do, they will radi- 
calize you. There cannot be any other result. 

General Grant said, "Let us have peace;" the new de- 
parture and Greeleyism mean the same thing ; it is addressed 
to your fears ; it is addressed to your sense of personal com- 
fort. Buy your peace by grounding the arms of your op- 
position to Radicalism, and acknowledge our right to rule 
you, without limitation, in all things! That is a peace I 
never mean to accept ! When they give me rigJit, I will 
give them peace and co-operation ; when they give me wrong, 
I will give them undying resistance. [Applause.] I know 
no way to maintain right but by fighting wrong. All men, 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 'i^'J'J 

who are in favor of maintaining their r'ghts, are called upon 
to rally — to fight against the foul wrongs that have trodden 
the right in the dust. Wherever you can find it, strike a 
blow, if it is inscribed on the banner carried by Grant, by 
Sumner, or by Greeley. 

I understand the policy of not pressing all your princi- 
ples upon a man at one time, if he will accept some vital 
one ; I can understand the policy — though by no means a 
favorite with me — of taking Judge Davis on account of his 
position on these reconstruction measures, because he held 
that the central government was limited, and when it ex- 
ceeded its powers, its acts were null and void — and this is a 
great point. I can understand that; but I don't understand 
any policy that can ever justify true men in giving support 
to a Radical who does not hold a single principle in com- 
mon with you, and in opposition to the other Radicals. 
Why, say some, Greeley Is quarreling with Grant. Sumner 
is quarreling with Grant; Sumner made a great speech 
against Grant the other day; and what do you reckon his 
objections were? He charged Grant with usurpation, but 
it was onb' that he had usurped a power which he said the 
Senate should have exercised. It was not the usurpation, 
but the person who perpetrated it, that Sumner complained 
of. He has quarreled with Grant, but his only quarrel with 
him was that Grant had robbed him of his rights. He 
complained, too, that Grant had violated the laws of na- 
tions, and committed a great outrage upon a foreign black 
republic ; but did he say one word about any usurpation 
that Grant had ever perpetrated upon us — upon folks at 
home, either white or black ? 

Greeley says Grant is corrupt : he takes gifts ; stands up 
to his friends; is guilty of excessive nepotism; hut what 
does he say when it comes to this grand central question — 
the solemn constitutional obligation of the central govern- 
ment to maintain the equal rights of citizens, which, they 
say, not only justifies but requires them to pass all these 
odious measures under which we have groaned, and under 
which the gallant State of South Carolina is groaning to- 
night? My God! how can a South Carolinian hesitate on 
Greeley? I put it to my friend (turning to General Gar- 
lington), the only way to get out of these tangles is to stand 
by your principles and by your guns, [Applause.] 

34 



378 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

It is a prime rule in whist, when you don't know what to 
play, to play ' ' trumps ; " and if you don't know who to vote 
for, play trumps; for trumps are always principles. I know 
something about Grant and Greeley's common principles : 
they put the Enforcement act upon us. I met them with 
argument ; I whipped the fight. I well remember the words 
of cheer which were given me in that contest by the peo- 
ple, and their rejoicing in my triumph. I was proud, and 
it made ni)' heart glad to see your devotion to principle. 
But 1 did not whip the fight by running away from it, but 
by fighting it with all the strength that God had given me. 
It is only by fighting Radicalism that you can do anything. 
Democrats can't succeed by yielding their principles, or ceas- 
ing to fight their enemies. The Atlanta Democrats never 
acted on that idea. I have known the Democrats of Fulton 
county when they were in the minority: they have made it 
a glorious majority by fighting. Georgia didn't act that 
way — cease to fight. 

The Democratic convention, which assembled in this city 
last August a year ago, had principles in it. It was abso- 
lutely a Bourbon platform ; it was actually written by a 
Bourbon, who is one of the strictest of the sect; and under 
that Bourbon platform you tore Bullock and his foul confed- 
erates from the throne, and put a Legislature and a Gov- 
ernor there of whom you are proud to-day. A Bourbon ! 
They say a Bourbon never forgets and never learns. Well, 
i tell you, I can never learn the new lesson they want to 
teach me until I forget all I know and knew before ; and as 
long as life shall last, and I preserve the principles with 
which I was born, I shall refuse to learn the -new lesson. 
They would teach me to advance my principles by support- 
ing my v^'orst enemy. 

But it is said we can't do anything! They say the De- 
mocracy was whipped in '68, and there's an end of the argu- 
ment. Well, the Democrats were very badly whipped in 
1 840 ; they were about as badly whipped a set of fellows as 
I ever saw. They did not think it was the end ; they fought 
on; they whipped the Whigs, in 1844, almost as badly as 
they got whipped in 1840. In 1848 they were whipped 
again ; they did not quit the fight. In 1852 they were again 
successful; they elected Pierce. In 1856 they elected Buch- 
anan ; and those are the only two consecutive triumphs of 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 379 

the Democratic party, in a presidential contest, since my rec- 
ollection. The next time they lost again. When people 
tell me that, because they lost in 1868, they can't succeed 
now, I know they don't understand these American people, 
or else they want to deceive me — one or the other. No man 
comprehends the people of these States, unless he under- 
stands that there is a vast mass of the people who don't owe 
any party allegiance, and that they go in each campaign 
according to the issues of the times. 

Whipped in 1868! How could it have been otherwise? 
That platforn said the reconstruction acts were revolutionary, 
unconstitutional, null and void; and the doctrine of that 
platform was, that the bayonet ought to be withdrawn, and 
the people left free to resume State-rights, form their own 
State Constitutions and organizations. That was the doc- 
trine of that platform. Well, Seymour would never get up 
on it ; he never would say that the reconstruction acts were 
revolutionary, unconstitutional, null and void ; and Frank 
Blair — he wrote his Broadhead letter, and said that the bay- 
onet ought to undo what it had wrongfully done. Frank 
jumped clean over the platform. And this is the way the 
platform stood : one-half on one side, afraid to get up ; the 
other half jumped clean over, and on the other side, and 
the two held together by nothing but the ligature of a com- 
mon nomination. The two candidates were like a pair of 
saddle-bags. And then the New York World refused to 
support the candidates, and said that even these saddle-bags 
should be taken down. 

Yes, we were whipped in 1868; but remember that, in 
1870, the elections in the Northern States went vastly in 
favor of the Democrats, with substantial gains in Congress. 
The new departure was sprung to stop the mischief; the 
Democratic work was going on too well ; it had to be stop- 
ped, and the new deparlure was put forward to stop it ; and 
now Greeley comes. The first gun that fires under them is 
Oregon — gone Radical now. It is true — and I thank God 
it is — that the best way to gain victory is to deserve it. 
There is more power in the truth than there is in falsehood. 
There is more in right than there is in wrong; and if you 
have got but true men, whether few or many, relatively, 
that is the road of success as well as of honor. 

There is another great question — I began by saying there 



380 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

were two — and the other is, Shall the Democratic party gov- 
ern the Baltimore convention, or shall the Baltimore con- 
vention govern the Democratic party? Shall the principal 
govern the agent, or the agent the principal? Shall the 
servant obey the master, or the master the servant? There 
is a cry now, " Let us all go to Baltimore ; we won't discuss 
it; we won't decide anything here — go to Baltimore; " and 
this when the proposition to be discussed at Baltimore is, 
whether or not Democratic principles are to be advanced by 
trusting them to the keeping of one of the chiefs of the 
Radicals? 

If I were in the church, I would as soon think of abiding 
by the decision of the church, if the question debated was 
whether Christ should be repudiated, and Mahomet or 
Juggernaut substituted instead. I abide by the Democratic 
party as long as it remains a Democratic party, and no lon- 
ger ; I abide by the Democratic party so long as it main- 
tains Democratic principles — or some vital one, at least, of the 
Democratic p)'i)iciples — and no longer. I don't mean anything 
harsh, but simply to tell you a plain truth — that I regard 
any body of men, associated politically for any purpose other 
than to maintain principles, as no better than a band of 
spoilsmen, bound together for plunder. The only cause of 
allegiance that binds a true vian to any party, is the faith 
that it teaches. Suppose the Baltimore convention nom- 
inates Grant, will you take him ? [A voice — " No !"] Sup- 
pose it nominates Greeley, why take him in preference to 
Grant? He is no better. 

They say he is an honest man — a good man. They talk 
about his old white hat, and make jokes about his old white 
coat, to put people in a good humor. May be it is like a 
Bourbon to have a memory, and I have not lost mine. I 
remember he was the man that raised his voice in the North, 
and said we had the right to secede, and that if the North 
made war upon us, it would be a crime. Yes, he said " let 
the wayward sisters go in peace. " After the war began he, 
too, raised the cry of war ; and, to show how malignant he 
was, he said that, when the war was over, the rebels should 
not go free, but should have a punishment. Hear it ! hear 
it ! Southrons, hear it ! Georgians, hear it ! Georgia men 
and Georgia women, he said they should have a punishment 
that could be read in the anxious faces of our mothers, and 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 38 1 

the rags of our children ! That's what he said. Save me 
from all such honesty as that. I believe I would rather 
trust the honesty of Bullock himself than such honesty as 
that. Tivachay is \w\\^X. I call it ; inaligJiity \^ what I call 
it — not benevolence. I don't want to "shake hands over 
such a chasm." I will tell you when I will "shake hands over 
the bloody chasm : " when he comes and offers me his hand 
over these enforcement acts, and the ku-klux act — under 
which South Carolina is groaning this night — and offers to 
shake hands with me, and swears on these locked hands that 
he gives up his principles, and that these so-called laws shall 
be repealed, and never be repeated, and gives up the prin- 
ciple that our rights are subject to the obligation of the cen- 
tral power to maintain the equal rights of citizens, then I 
will shake hands with him, and not before. [Applause.] 

I want no Judas' kisses nor Judas' shaking of the hand ; 
and I will kiss no man, and I would not kiss even any wo- 
man [applause], much as I love them — and God knows I 
love to live to love them [applause] — I would not even ac- 
cept a woman's lips that came to offer Delilah's kiss. Talk 
to me about abiding the Baltimore convention ! I will abide 
by it in all questions of policy, but I will not abide by that 
convention, nor any other convention that bids me depart 
from principle ; and I want to know if these gentlemen who 
say stand by the Baltimore convention, whatever they do, 
will stand by it if they adopt the Philadelphia platform and 
nominate Grant? The Cincinnati platform is no better in 
principle than the Philadelphia platform. 

But the office-rot has got among them ; yes, and that is 
what's the matter. They are like Esau — some of them : 
they would sell their birthright for a mess of pottage. I 
don't speak of the people ; but there are men who are pin- 
ing for pottage. They have been ineligible ; they could 
not get a crumb for lo, these seven years. [Laughter.] 
The office-rot is what is the matter ; they seek plunder. 
There are some who are even willing to change their posi- 
tion from the plundered to the plunderers. As for me, let 
me abide by the oppression. I would rather support prin- 
ciple than secure profit by committing the deed. Trust, 
then, in the wisdom and justice of God. I do verily believe 
that He, not as a speculative being, but as a natural Being, 
rules every movement of this whole earth. It is my com- 



382 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

fort and my consolation that there is a God who rules the 
world, and that if I do not prove untrue to Him, I need fear 
no human oppression now nor hereafter. Stand by His. 
good gifts ; He gave us this great right to govern ourselves ; 
let us not abandon it; let us honor, and not dishonor Him. 
These, fellow-citizens, are my views of the political situ- 
ation ; these are my resolves as to my duty. I w'ill go for 
the maintenance of Democratic principles; and if I can't 
get the man who goes for all, I will take the one who goes 
for some of the vital principles of the Democracy; I will 
take no subordinate rights, but absobde State-rights. The 
w^ay to win is to hoist your colors. I do not mean any new 
departurists — -I don't mean any radicalized colors, but the 
true Democratic State-rights colors that hold reconstruction 
and all its triumphs to be revolutionary, unconstitutional, 
null, and void. We may not succeed in electing a Presi- 
dent in this campaign, but we can put the party on this sort 
of a platform, and give it standard-bearers worthy to carry 
its colors. We w^ill be in condition to carry the next elec- 
tion ; but, at all events, it will keep the tnitJi for future use. 
I see some say it takes a very nice calculation to tell 
whether Greeley has the strength to succeed. Well, my 
God ! if there is any doubt, then, will you hesitate? I have 
been sincere, and am warm, because my whole soul is in 
this business. I do not intend to die a slave myself, and I 
do not intend peacefully to submit to slavery as an inherit- 
ance for my children; and, if we cannot do anything else, 
we can, at least, maintain the glorious party we have inau- 
gurated in old Georgia ; and I would rather to-day have the 
Georgia Democracy go forth into another canvass, true to 
their principles, with true standard-bearers, than to have all 
the spoils the office-seekers will ever get out of Greeley. 
All the favors Greeley would give Democrats would be to 
such Democrats as would never do honor to their party. 
You could get all that out of Grant if you would go over to 
him. They say he is scared — he is badly scared at the 
prospect before him. Well, if you go over to him, he is 
fond of his friends. If you want peace, and will take it on 
his terms ; if you will acknowledge his right to lick you 
whenever he wants to, he will take off all those enforcement 
acts; but they won't stay off long; for as long as the prin- 
ciple is acknowledged, it has got to bear its fruits. The 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 383 

thistle will bear the same fruits again, plant it in whatever 
soil you may. You might stop Vesuvius by plunging Stone 
Mountain into it, but the fires would break out at some new 
crater. The vital force may stop, for a season, its opera- 
tion in one direction, but it will break out somewhere else. 
If you take off the ku-klux bill, they will give you an edu- 
cational bill next ; then a religious bill, after awhile, to es- 
tablish your religion. 

Now, this constitutional obligation they talk about, to 
maintain the rights of citizens — the XlVth and XVth mis- 
called amendments, the XlVth and XVth frauds, the XlVth 
and XVth falsehoods, because the XlVth and XVth usurp- 
ations come last — they say they override everything else — 
the provision that habeas corpus shall not be suspended in 
time of peace — everything — these frauds which are not in 
the Constitution at all, and, if they were, never could be 
rightly construed, as they construe them — they say they 
override everything that was ever in the Constitution be- 
fore. As long as this principle is held ; as long as men are 
in power, who acknowledge it; as long as a party cannot 
be found in the country to war against that principle: that 
principle will live and flourish. The thorn-tree will bear 
thorns, and the American people will have plucked the last 
fig from the tree of liberty. [Great applause.] 

A few days after the delivery of that speech — days of un- 
remitting toil in the court-room and in the closet — he went 
home, in an exhausted condition of health, to meet his en- 
gagements in Hancock Superior Court. Employed on one 
side or the other of every important cause, the labor it im- 
posed quite overcame him. When the excitement of the 
week — the gandia ccrtaminis — had abated, he was left in a 
state of complete nervous prostration. On Friday, he was 
confined to his room; Saturday, he was worse; and, al- 
though no alarm was felt, a physician was called in. 

During the night, his condition became critical. At 5 
o'clock p. M., Sunday, the 14th of July, 1872, he ceased to 
breathe. 

Retaining perfect consciousness to the last moment, and 



384 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

fully appreciating his situation, with all its relations — past, 
present, and future — he took his way into the Great Dark- 
ness undismayed — dying, as he had lived, "fearing God 
and knowing no other fear." 

His obsequies are thus described by Frank L. Little, 
Esq., at that time editor of the Southern Times and Planter: 

Judge Stephens' Burial, 

This event occurred on Tuesday morning, at 10 o'clock. 
By general consent, all the places of business had been 
closed since his death, and every house was draped in 
mourning. Many sympathizing friends visited his residence 
on Monday ; but, on Tuesday, the throng of people poured 
in from all sides, until hundreds were here to look, for the 
last time, upon the remains of the deceased, and to assist 
in the sad ceremony of his burial. Every man, and woman, 
and child seemed to be bowing under the consciousness of 
individual loss, and the general gloom was deeper than we 
have ever seen it before. The few words spoken were in a 
suppressed tone, and were all about the great loss to his 
family and country. 

When the appointed hour for the burial had arrix-ed, the 
plate was adjusted over the glass, and the pall-bearers, in 
the following order, bore him from the library, where his 
remains had been lying, to the open grave: 

Wm. W. Simpson and Captain L. L. Lamar. 
L. Pierce, Jr., and J. Clarence Simmons. 
Henry H. Culver and Dr. E. D. Alfriend. 
Henry Harris and F. L. Little. 

The grave is just in front of his residence, beautifully sur- 
rounded with shrubbery and embowered with shade-trees. 
Under the reading of the impressive words of the burial- 
service, by his life-long friend. Colonel C. W. DuBose, 
whose voice was tremulous with his own deep emotions, 
not many eyes remained dry. This ended, the grave was 
soon filled, and all that was mortal of this distinguished 
man hid away forever from the sight of friends and loved 
ones. His body "was committed to the dust, his soul to 
the God who g-ave it." 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 385 

Not least of the significant and affecting circumstances of 
his funeral rites was the large number of colored people 
who were present to testify their sense of sorrow at the 
common loss and pay respect to his memory. Their houses, 
too, were "draped in mourning," and they wept over the 
grave of their real benefactor and friend, whose counsels, in 
the early days of emancipation, they did not heed, but 
which later and riper experience had taught them were sal- 
utary and wise: for, to all men, at all times, he spoke true 
things rather than pleasing things — 'W^era pro gratis.'' 

In stature. Judge Stephens stood six feet, with more bone 
and muscle than flesh. All the features of his face were 
distinctly marked. His forehead, broad at the base, broad- 
ened as it ascended to the region of what phrenologists de- 
nominate Causality, Comparison, and Ideality. In youth, 
he had a thick suit of dark-brown hair, inclined to curl and 
crisp, which time somewhat whitened, but scarcely thinned. 
His was a deep-set, clear, blue eye, which, in repose, wore an 
expression of thoughtfulness and almost unworldly sadness; 
in moments of hilarity, it laughed with rich, soft light, be- 
traying an almost feminine tenderness and gentleness ; whilst, 
on occasions which called into exercise the heroic virtues, 
or excited the sterner passions of anger or indignation, it 
flashed forth a flame that was terrible to the trembling trans- 
gressor. His nose, fashioned rather after the Roman than 
the Grecian mould, was large and prominent ; his chin, more 
broad than sharp, lent a Spartan resolution to the whole ex- 
pression of his face; his head, like Napoleon's and Frank- 
lin's, grew larger after he had passed his third decade. His 
dress, never sloven, was sometimes negligent; he cared lit- 
tle for the fit of a garment, if it sat easy and was unsoiled. 

The handwriting of Judge Stephens was remarkably legi- 
ble, and somewhat feminine in type ; it was formed upon no 
model, and resembled none I ever saw. With abundant 



386 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

indications to show that he used the pen with ease and rap- 
idity, there are seldom to be discovered any signs of hurry — 
none of carelessness. In the large number of letters which 
I have had occasion to examine, there are to be found very 
few interlineations, and not more than one or two erasures. 
In this respect, his manuscript was as unblemished as one 
of Mr. John Quincy Adams', of whom it has been related 
that he never made an alteration on the written page during 
the last fifty years of his busy life. 

In social life, he avoided the crowd. The circle of his 
intimate friends was not a large one ; but of that ' ' charmed 
circle" he was the idol; and, perhaps, it is not extravagant 
to record that, while the death of many Georgians has cre- 
ated a sorrow more extensive in its range, the death of none 
ever penetrated the hearts of so large a number with an 
anguish so personal, so near, so keen, so bitter as that occa- 
sioned by the death of Linton Stephens. How many felt 
as did the large-hearted, stalwart man feel when, standing 
by the open grave of Daniel Webster, he said: "How 

LONESOME THE WORLD SEEMS ! " 

Judge Stephens was an earnest student throughout his life. 
He had studied men, and knew them well ; his judgments of 
character, sometimes almost intuitively formed, were rarely 
erroneous. It was in books, however, that he found the 
chiefest source of intellectual enjoyment ; they were his pas- 
sion and delight — pnesidium et duke deciis. 

He did not cultivate, with any great degree of assiduity, 
the knowledge of Greek, imperfectly acquired at college ; 
but his knowledge of the Latin language and hterature was 
extensive, accurate, and intimate. Tacitus, Cicero, and 
Horace were special favorites — each of his kind. His knowl- 
edge of the best English authors, both of prose and verse, 
v\'as comprehensive, various, and wonderfully exact, for one 
whose vocation was the study and mastery of the "jealous 
science of the law." Bacon and Burke, '' welded together,'' 



JUDGE LINTON STTEPHENS. 387 

he said, would have made the grandest character in history. 
It is safe to say, he had no superior in the State in a pro- 
found and philosophical knowledge of English and Ameri- 
can history — political, ecclesiastical, or literary. He re- 
garded Hume, in style, as the Prince of British historians — 
neat, perspicuous, nervous, condensed — far surpassing, for 
that sort of writing, the elaborate finish of Gibbon — matc- 
nam superabat opus — the stately elegance of Robertson, or 
the studied, breathless antitheses of Macaulay. 

Of American historians, he esteemed Motley before Ban- 
croft or Prescott. Prescott was too precise as to little mat- 
ters; Bancroft had more words than ideas. Addison, among 
all the English fine writers of prose, he admired most, in 
sentiment as well as style. He has been heard to say, that 
' ' Washington Irving was the Addison of America. " " Dean 
Swift," he said, "was a dirty dog, but no man ever wrote 
or uttered the Saxon of our tongue so vigorously as Dean 
Swift." Shakspeare and the English Bible he knew almost 
by heart. Pope, he said, was the greatest didactic poet of 
any language ; Burns, Byron, Dryden, Goldsmith — all of 
different vein — were his companions — each of whom he had 
studied, and thoroughly appreciated. 

Milton he did not very greatly admire, for the same rea- 
son that he little affected Gibbon: it required too much 01 
palpable, ostensible effort to ' ' mamifachire the Miltonic gran- 
deur.'' The quiet, quaint, half-hid humor of Tristram Shandy 
he could read and laugh over by the hour, all day long ; and 
he said ''Sterne mistook his calling when he put on the sa- 
cerdotal robes." He never could detect any wit in Rabe- 
lais; and he said, " I have searched for it in vain ; Toombs 
or Tom Thomas can, and frequently do, speak more witti- 
cisms in one night than Rabelais, in a lifetime, wrote. " Bul- 
wer was his beau-ideal of a monarch in the realms of fiction — 
greater than Thackeray, or Dickens, or Scott, because he 
had a deeper and more philosophic insight into hum.an na- 



388 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

ture — especially in its nob'er manifestations ; and his great- 
est merit was the beauty, and fidelity, and delicacy with 
which he portrayed the excellence of female character, in 
its best exhibitions. He once said: "There is no gram- 
mar, and hardly a dictionary, in our language. Webster is 
the best definer ; but his orthography, in so many instances, 
is not akin to the etymology ; for example,. thea/<?r is only 
the step-daughter of theat/wz, etc. Home Tooke was the 
greatest of English philologists. He knew the power of 
words, and made them things ; the shortest cut to a knowl- 
edge of our mother-tongue is through the "Diversions of 
Purley. " He had peculiar aptitude and fondness for meta- 
physical study and inquiry ; and, in the line of speculative 
philosophy, he ranked Sir William Hamilton above Reid or 
Stewart — even alongside his great prototype, Aristotle. 

He was passionately fond of biography — "the philosophy 
which teaches by example " more aptly and specifically than 
history ; and he gave full indulgence to his taste for that 
sort of reading. " Kennedy's Life of Wirt" he considered 
the best specimen of American biography, whether regarded 
in point of style, the skillful handling of his material, the 
delicacy and elegance of the portraiture, or the attractive 
light in which he presents his subject, as an example for the 
emulation of youth. 

His colloquial talents were of the first rate. Like Burke, 
he talked because "his mind was full;" he never opened 
his mouth without having something to say. His conversa- 
tion was alike instructive and entertaining — at times, adorned 
with classical allusion, enlivened with apt anecdote, enriched 
with prompt and sparkling wit, and illustrated by serious or 
comic incident. No man had a keener appreciation of the 
ludicrous, either in incident or in character ; and none more 
exquisitely enjoyed a well-told story, or better relished a good 
joke; when the humor was on him, and the occasion to his 
liking, few knew so well how "to set the table on a roar." 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 389 

All men of mark have their special theaters whereon 
their peculiar talents and abilities show to greatest advan- 
tage. There are those who shine most brilliantly in the 
forum, addressing the bench — like Toombs or Hull — or ad- 
dressing the Twelve, like Wright or Lumpkin ; others there 
are, whose Titanic strength is best displayed before delib- 
erative assemblies, like Johnson or the elder Stephens; 
others, again, are in their element and in their glory on the 
hustings, like Hill and Yancey; others, yet again, in the 
lecture-room, like McCay or LeConte, I believe the great- 
est exhibitions of intellectual resource and power ever made 
by Linton Stephens were in familiar conversation, when, in- 
spired by the topic under discussion, and conscious of no 
effort on his own part, he poured forth a wealth of learning 
and wisdom, wit, logic, and eloquence, that was marvelous 
to the auditor. He was one of the few men I have known, 
whose mental bulk and stature aggrandized on approach — 
possibly some frailty may have been, at the same time, 
more fully disclosed to view — but his real greatness en- 
larged — it did not diminish. 

Other and abler pens have, in the preceding pages, por- 
trayed him in the character of statesman, jurist, orator, 
friend: one, especially, has befittingly complemented — 
what his own letters do not entirely reveal — the excellence 
and beauty of the endearing and nobler parts of his nature, 
as daily exemplified in social and domestic life, and which, 
lending a mild and sweet expression to the sterner features 
of great mental endowment — severely cultured — masculine 
will, unquailing courage, complete the picture of Man. 

The affluence of just, discriminate, appreciative eulogy, 
which was heaped upon his tomb through channels of the 
public press, the courts, political conventions, primary as- 
semblies of the people, epistolary correspondence, private 
conversation, is unequaled, perhaps, in the history of any 
citizen of the commonwealth — certainly, in that of any one 



390 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

who never occupied the highest poHtical station. He, him- 
self, was unconscious of the space he filled in the general 
eye, and of the hold he had upon the popular heart. His 
manly modesty would have crimsoned at suggestion of the 
fact; still, the sorrow — deep, boding, awful — so keenly 
felt, so eloquently uttered, when "tidings of his death came 
like v/ailing over the land," avouches the truth that he was 
the foremost citizen of the State when the awful curtain 
dropped. 

When few of the many testimonials, in my possession, of 
the estimation wherein he was held, and of the sharp grief 
the news of his death shot to the hearts of great and good 
men, who knew, appreciated, admired him, are transcribed, 
my "labor of love" will have been imperfectly performed. 

I am under obligations to Hon. Miles W. Lewis for the 
following admirable estimate of Judge Stephens' character 
as a legislator: 

WooDLAWN, Greene County, Georgia, 
September 24, 1873. 

My De.\r Sir — Yours of the i8th instant is before me. 
You state that you are preparing a biographical memoir of 
the late Judge Stephens, and that, from the frequent and 
respectful mention made of me in his correspondence with 
his brother, Alexander, you infer that we often inter- 
changed letters, and ask a loan of them. It would afford 
me great pleasure to comply with your request; but, al- 
though Judge Stephens and myself were very intimate, I 
remember no letter he ever wrote me, except such as were 
entirely on professional business. This I consider a strange 
misfortune, considering our social relations ; for I claim no 
more honor than is due to truth when I tell you that, al- 
though the number of those who partook of his kindness 
and enjoyed his friendship was little less extensive than the 
circle of his acquaintance, yet those with whom he was in- 
timate, and to whom he freely unlocked the arcana of his 
great heart, were comparatively very few, and that I was 
one of the favored few. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 39 

You also state truly that I served with him in the Gen- 
eral Assembly, and ask me to aid your labor by giving you 
my reminiscences of him as a legislator, to be incorporated 
in the volume over my own name. I greatly regret that 
the imperfections of memory, the want of data at my com- 
mand, and press of business, will render the contribution 
unsatisfactory to both of us, and unworthy of the character 
and talents of our deceased friend; but if I can chisel out 
even an humble and unsightly block to fill up an interstice 
in the literary monument you are erecting to his memory, 
it shall be at your free disposal. You are engaged in a 
noble enterprise — no less a one than enshrining in the an- 
nals of biographical literature, as it is already in the hearts 
of his counrymen, the memory of one of Georgia's noblest 
and greatest dead. His State could have but ill spared his 
services at any crisis in her history ; but at the particular 
and peculiar time of his death, I hesitate not to say that 
Georgia — yea, the whole Republic — could have sustained 
no greater loss in the death of any one of her distinguished 
sons. Who, that knew his power and influence, can esti- 
mate the depth and extent of the wound inflicted on con- 
stitutional liberty by the fatal shaft which death aimed at 
this shining mark? Might not the administration of our 
State government, in all its departments (improved as it has 
been in the recent past), have been still purer, less selfish, 
more patriotic, more statesman-like, and more glorious? 
Might not the circle of this improvement, as the ripple on 
the agitated surface of the recently placid lake, have en- 
larged until its influence would have been felt throughout 
the whole extent of this mighty confederation? Who can 
say nay? 

But to the duty assigned me of sketching, as best I may, 
his characteristics as a legislator. This I can do only in 
general terms, being unable to particularize and illustrate 
each trait, by. striking incidents in his legislative career, 
coming under my own observation, from the fact that we 
served together in but one General Assembly — he in the 
House and I in the Senate — each attending closely to the 
business and debates transpiring in his own branch ; but 
whenever 1 heard his familiar voice in debate, unless per- 
sonally engaged in important business in the Senate, I al- 
ways repaired to the Representative hall. He never spoke 



392 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

merely to be talking, and for notoriety ; and never, except 
on matters of grave importance, and, usually, such as vi- 
tally affected the interests of the (then) Southern Confed- 
eracy — such as the conscript acts, the indorsement by the 
State of the Confederate bonds, the principles on which, 
and for which, the war should be carried on, and when and 
how it should be terminated; for the discussion of these 
important subjects, which, at that time, absorbed the inter- 
est and attention of the whole South, he marshaled ail his 
intellectual forces. These were neither few nor feeble, but 
formidable to opponents, and such as gave to allies assur- 
ance of victory. 

His speeches were characterized by practical — or, as it is 
generally termed common — sense, sound logic, animation, 
zeal (not "without knowledge"), withering sarcasm, fine 
discrimination, and fervid eloquence; in short, he held in 
his intellectual armory, and used as occasion demanded, all 
the weapons whose skillful handling constitutes the able de- 
bater and eloquent orator. He accomplished his purposes 
by no maneuvering or indirect means, but marched boldly 
up to his work, strong in his consciousness of right, fearless 
of consequences to himself, "asking no favors and shrink- 
ing from no responsibility. " Even his opponents honored 
him for the purity of his motives, and admired his great 
ability. He was always the champion of the liberty of the 
people ; and if there was any subject in the whole range of 
political science, which he thoroughly comprehended, and 
which was the idol of his patriotic affections, that subject 
was Constitutional Liberty. In its defense, he fought 
his most celebrated battles, and achieved his most brilliant 
victories. 

In the ordinary routine of legislation, and in his daily in- 
tercourse with his fellow-members, he was distinguished by 
the same traits of character which so signally marked his 
conduct in social life. He was truthful, candid, guileless, 
generous, and brave. In each and all these qualities, if he 
ever had a superior, the writer never saw him. This judg- 
ment is pronounced with no fear of its being criticized or 
questioned by those who knew him. 

Pardon a short paragraph on one of his prominent traits 
as a lawyer. His rare legal attainments will doubtless form 
the subject of a leading chapter in your memoir; but he 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 393 

was as magnanimous and generous as he was able and elo- 
quent. An instance in point I not only witnessed, but ex- 
perienced, and gratefully remember. I was engaged in the 
defense of some negro prisoners, indicted for a crime which 
rendered them so odious that they were threatened with 
•Lynch-law, if acquitted in the court, which placed their 
counsel in a position by no means enviable. Friends warned 
me of the danger of a loss of popularity, and the forfeiture 
of the friendship and patronage of the most influential class 
of society. In my jury-speech, I spoke of the seductive 
whisperings of ambition and vain warnings of pretended or 
real friends that had been breathed into my ear — treated 
them all (I trust) with becoming contempt, and made the 
best defense I could, under the circumstances. Judge Ste- 
phens follovk'ed me in the prosecution. Never shall I forget 
his look of approval, as advancing to me, when I sat down, 
he said: "Miles, who has been talking in that way about 
you?" After informing him, he opened one of his most 
masterly efforts by paying me a high compliment for the 
force of the argument, and the honor I had reflected on the 
profession, by what he termed my manly and independent 
bearing m the case. Then followed a withering rebuke to 
my zvould-bc friends for endeavoring to turn me aside from 
the path of professional duty. I then felt, and still feel, 
richly compensated for any danger I was in from the malev- 
olence of enemies or the desertion of friends. But lest I 
transcend the limits assigned me, I will close this imperfect 
sketch of our departed friend with a familiar, but appropri- 
ate, couplet from the ancient classics: 

• 
"Clarum et venerabile nomen, 

Gentibus, et multum nostie quod proderat urbi." 

Yours, truly. Miles W. Levv'is. 

The Hon. Richard H. Clark thus graphically and elegantly 
describes the effect of one of Judge Stephens' speeches in 
the General Assembly in 1854: 

The State capitol was located in Milledgeville in (I be- 
lieve) the year 1807, because it was the nearest practical 

35 



394 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

geographical center of the State. This was before the day 
of railroads, and before there were settlements beyond the 
Ocmulgee. When Cherokee, Western, and Southwestern 
Georgia became settled, the lands of the Creeks and Chero- 
kees occupied, and the railroad system of the State estab- 
lished, Milledgeville was left rather out of the way for the' 
great majority of the white, or business, population. The 
removal of the capitol to Macon or Atlanta began to be 
mooted, and, at the session of 1847, took shape in the effort 
to pass a law to that effect. Then, and after, the move 
would have succeeded, if all the friends of removal could 
have agreed on the site; but the contest between Macon 
and Atlanta operated to keep the capitol at Milledgeville. 
The removal feeling, nevertheless, continued to grow until 
the sessions of i853-'4. An act passed "the House" to 
move the capitol to Macon. By a count of the Senate, 
it was ascertained that the same act would pass that body. 
This knowledge created intense interest among the people 
of Milledgeville. They /iV/' that all their real estate v/ould, 
by the removal, become as ashes on their hands, and this, 
with many, was absolute poverty. Every man, and, in- 
deed, woman, and even children, turned out to "stem the 
tide " in the Senate. I have never witnessed any excitement, 
of the kind, so intense, deep, and pervading. The bill was 
made the special order for a day in (I think) February, 1854. 
On that day, before the hour for the special order had ar- 
rived, the gallery, the lobby, the aisles, the windows — every- 
where that sitting or standing-room could be had — was filled 
with the population of Milledgeville. The oldest citizens — 
such%s the eldest McComb — were furnished with the most 
comfortable and most conspicuous seats. If all of them 
had been on trial for their lives, they could not have looked 
more serious, more anxious, or more troubled. We, who 
w^xQ. fixed for the removal, were moved with compassion at 
the sight; yet, we felt it a public duty that must be dis- 
charged, and the people of Milledgeville had our deepest 
sympathy in our realization that nothing that could be done 
would prevent the enactment of the law for the removal. 
They had always been the kindest of people — all, even to 
the negro servants, who were the best collection in the State. 
There is no man, with both sense and soul, who has ever 
passed a session at Milledgeville, but must have formed an 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 395 

attachment for the place and people, and one that must be 
a dear memory, even down to the latest period of the long- 
est liver. Especially so it must be with those who passed 
there those long biennial sessions of some ninety days, and 
remained all the while as the guests of the very aged Mrs. 
Huson, or of (as he was familiarly called) "Old Bob Mc- 
Comb. " When the time came and the special order was 
taken up, there was the most profound silence. It was of 
a kind that reminded one of a funeral occasion, when men 
and women were gathered to pay the last sad rites to a dear 
friend, just preceding the burial. Now, this simile is appro- 
priate ; for a majority of the Senate then proposed to bury 
forever dear old Milledgeville, the capital of Georgia ; and 
her whole population had come out as mourners. My mem- 
ory fails me, if any effort was made in the way for or against 
the bill, before the speech of Judge Stephens. I think not ; 
but if so, the 'efforts were not marked by any length or 
power. I k}unv that several of the most effective speakers 
on the removal side were reserved for closing the debate. 
The Milledgeville people had made a strong friend of Judge 
Stephens. His friendship was not merely political — it was 
personal, ^x\<\ feelingly personal. He was their champion — 
indeed, all their hopes were centered in him — to check the 
current that was fast and forcibly running against them. It 
was an occasion where everything conspired to a successful 
effort. There was the subject — the people, the interests, 
the affections, the time, the audience, the orator. It is 
useless — indeed, it is impossible — to describe the oration. 
It lasted for an hour and a half, and as much was said as 
was possible for man to embrace in that much time. For 
logic, for pathos, for humor, for ingenuity, it was grand ; 
and, if judged by its ^effects, it was unsurpassed. The si- 
lence that prevailed at the beginning became, if possible, 
deeper, as the orator proceeded. The Milledgeville men 
and women wept tears of joy, and the most inveterate 
removal man looked ashamed of the deed he was about to 
commit; and, before Judge Stephens concluded, we re- 
garded "Old Bob McComb, " and his sort, as bearing "a 
charmed life," and that it was sacrilege to touch their per- 
son or property, either indirectly or directly, with or with- 
out the forms of law. I do not remember, except on one 
occasion, that all the feeling I had was one of enthusiastic 



396 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

admiration for the genius of tJie speaker. This feeling so 
took possession of me that, in casting my eyes to the gal- 
lery to see the effect of the oratory there, I discovered Judge 
Stephens' wife, and the thought that, with lightning rap- 
idity came to me, was, "How proud she must be of her 
husband ! " for if I, who was no kinsman, nor intimate, and, 
for the occasion, his antagonist, was proud, what must be 
her admiration ? The speaker not only excited the admira- 
tion of both friend and foe, but did what is seldom done — 
ne'-oer, in my knowledge — that is, capture all of them. It 
is as true as truth itself, that, without a demand, we laid 
down our arms and surrendered at discretion. When Judge 
Stephens concluded, it needed no vote to tell the fate of the 
bill. Every man felt it stronger than language or vote could 
express. The Senator from Bibb, Mr. Dean, seeing the 
effect, endeavored to rally his voters ; but it was of no use. 
He appealed to me to answer Judge Stephens — a feat we 
occasionally did for each other — and I told him if I tJien 
spoke, it would be against his bill, for it would take time to 
get over the spell of Stephens' eloquence. But the vote 
had to be taken on (I believe) Judge Stephens' motion to 
indefinitely postpone, and there was no one who said ' ' nay, " 
and i\\-2it feebly, but the '* old guard " of the removal army — 
they who, through defeat, tears, and disasters, yet had the 
courage to stand by their colors — myself among the rest. 
It remains to be added, that the effect of that speech was 
not merely to defeat removal then, but killed it so dead that 
it never kicked again until after a four-years' bloody war. 
To prevent misconstruction, it seems necessary to state that, 
from the first, I was in favor of removal. I have often, in 
the times alluded to, told my Milledgeville friends that the 
"fates were against them," and, at'no very distant day, re- 
moval would be accomplished. When it came, it came in 
a way I dreamed not of. 

Richard H. Clark. 

Hon. Herbert Fielder wrote of him : 

Cuthbert, July 24, 1S73. 

For close, severe, persistent, aggressive, and irresistible 
logic — upon fair, and open, and manly statement of facts — 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 397 

I know of no man, among all my acquaintances, who was 
his superior; and, I can say, barely any who was, in every 
respect, his equal. His eloquence was like his logic. His 
voice was musical, his manner was so earnest, and his voice 
so in harmony with his manner, and both so true an index 
to the great thoughts that agitated his brain and stirred up 
his passionate nature, that he commanded the attention of 
all grades of mind, from his equals down to the masses. 

When he argued a question, he not only was understood, 
h\it felt by every auditor; and when he was done, the ques- 
tion was exhausted; yet, he was neither prolix nor tedi- 
ous. He followed wherever his convictions of truth led 
him, and the thoughts he uttered came from his great mind 
clothed in the habiliments of sentiment, affection, hatred, 
or contempt, that such thoughts would naturally produce in 
his great and fearless heart. 

He was only a few years my senior, and I can't remem- 
ber the time, since I came to manhood, that I have not 
been accustomed to hear Linton Stephens spoken of as a 
model of personal integrity and honor. 

But his most distinguished characteristic was, that he had 
an iron nerve, a firmness and inflexible adherence to his con- 
victions of right, and a fixed belief in the imperious neces- 
sity "for doing w^hat principle dictated in every case. 

Other men whom we know, and love to honor, have tal- 
ents equal, perhaps, to his, in some, and possibly superior, 
in other respects ; still, in others, fall below his level ; but I 
know of no man who surpassed, if, possibly, any who 
equaled. Judge Stephens in the firmness and inflexibiHty oi 
his mind, when once made up on any subject. Foes could 
not intimidate, nor friends persuade, him to abandon any 
position, the correctness of which was dictated to him by 
his expanding powers of conception and analysis. . . . 
■ I am truly, etc., Herbert Fielder. 

The following, from ex-Governor Herschel V. Johnson, 
will be read with interest: 

Sandy Grove, Bartow Post-office, 
July 4, 1873. 

I knew Judge Stephens well, and I had many interesting 
conversations with him upon almost every subject that in- 



39^ BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

tcrests intelligent men. I estimated him highly as a man 
of strong and original thought, extensive learning — espe- 
cially in his profession — and of marked independence and 
fearlessness in the embracement and advocacy of what he 
believed to be true; indeed, I regard his devotion to truth 
and principle as the prominent element of his character. 
He was candid, patient, astute, and thorough in the inves- 
tigation of all questions which duty required him to con- 
sider. In his personal intercourse, he was amiable, unas- 
suming, candid, and sincere. It is difficult to measure the 
loss of such a man, with such intellectual and moral endow- 
ments as he possessed ; it was a great public calamity. 

His name and career are worthy of commemoration ; they 
should not be permitted to perish ; and I am truly gratified 
that you are crystalizing them into permanent ancl enduring 
form. I wish you all possible success. 
I am, dear sir, sincerely 

Your obedient servant and friend, 

Hersciiel V. Johnson. 

The following tribute to his memory, from the pen oi 
Hon. Edward H. Pottle, appeared in the Sparta Times ana 
Platiter: 

Warrenton, July 27, 1872. 

Mr. Editor — Permit me, through the columns of your 
paper, to offer my tribute to the memory of your distin- 
guished citizen. Judge Linton Stephens. 

There is a positive pleasure in grief, and I cannot refrain 
from giving expression to some of the emotions which his 
death has inspired in my own breast. It is a real pleasure 
to me to con over the numerous incidents in his life, and in 
them to note how true manhood may be illustrated. Per- 
haps there are few living, outside his own family-circle, who 
knew him so long and so well as myself, and who have had 
so many opportunities for knowing the excellencies of his 
character. Just thirty-two years ago, I made his acquaint- 
ance, when we both were boys, in the State University. 
He was then entering the Sophomore class. His staid and 
regular habits were marked, as well as that vivacity which 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 399 

followed him through life ; and now, after the lapse ot so 
many years, no changes were observable in him, except de- 
velopments. His manhood never lost the type of his boy- 
hood. 

He had the best-trained mind I ever knew : its caste was 
metaphysical and logical; and hence the disposition, patent 
to every one, to disregard authority or books, and rest his 
conclusions on his own mental resources. In early life, he 
was a student: he read, he studied, he thought; and what 
he learned, he learned well — learned to treasure up in the 
store-house of his own wonderful memory. He never stud- 
ied to get ideas, but to compare them. Ideas he had of his 
own ; and if, in search of truth, he found ideas of others 
antagonizing with his own, he rejected them, unless, tried 
in the crucible of his own severe logic, they were found to 
be tJie truth. He was a man of convictions ; and the pecu- 
liar emphasis with which he always gave the word truth, in 
his addresses, was a sure mark of his devotion to it. There 
was a maturity in his mind, while in college, which few 
young men possess — a hardness which gave promise of a 
useful and illustrious future. I well remember an incident 
while he was in the Senior class. The subject of the lec- 
ture and recitation was, taxation, direct and indirect, on the 
department of political economy. In answer to a question 
growing out of the text, he dissented from the author, and 
the current opinions on that subject, and the hour was spent 
in earnest discussion between him and the president, who, 
at its close, paid him a compliment which proved to be a 
prophecy. The ease with which he mastered his lesson 
was a marvel to us all. He always had time for recreation, 
and the lecture-room always found him ready for exercise. 
Unlike the most of students, he had no specialties in his 
studies; he excelled in mathematics, as well as in other 
branches ; and in debate, he showed the powers of analysis 
which characterized him in after life. 

At his graduation — where the first honor was awarded 
him — no one doubted the merited distinction. His social 
qualities imparted a charm ; and hence his popularity with 
his companions at college. There was a stream of humor 
and pleasantry which never ran dry, and a racincss in con- 
versation which has kept alive many of his sayings to this 
day. His friendship was warm and real, and his attach- 



400 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

ments strong. To dissolve them without a struggle was 
hard for him to do with a cause. 

I have heard it said of him, during his life, that he was 
inclined to skepticism. This was a great mistake. I never 
knew one who, in theory, had a more sacred regard for the 
truth of religion and its divine origin. It is true, he liad 
views which were not in harmony with the teachings of 
some books ; but the teachings of the Bible he cordially re- 
ceived. Not long before his death, he proposed to write a 
treatise on one of the topics of moral science, in which he 
intended to combat errors of some good men, which, in his 
judgment, tended to encourage unbelief, and obscure the 
real beauties of the Christian system as revelation unfolds 
them. 

After a long and intimate acquaintance with him, I can 
say that I never knew a man of a warmer heart; with him 
it was a luxury to love ; and some of the most pleasant mo- 
ments of my life have been spent with him in recounting 
the happy scenes of the home-circle. 

As a lawyer, he has left an example worthy of universal 
imitation: honorable in his relations, faithful to his clients, 
and devoted to truth. On the bench, he has left an endur- 
ing monument to his fame as a lawyer and his honesty as 
a judge. In the case of Hill (colored) vs. The State, re- 
ported in volume 28, Ga. R., he dissented from a majority 
of the court on a question of great interest to the bar, and 
one affecting liberty and right. Though the accused was a 
slave, he gave him the benefit of a lofty principle of consti- 
tutional law, which was unanimously declared to be law, 
subsequently, in Washington vs. The State, '^6 Ga. R., and 
that, too, upon the able dissenting opinion which Judge 
Stephens had delivered in the former case. Of this rever- 
sal, he was ever afterwards justly proud, because the deci- 
sion had settled a great right which every human being en- 
joyed under the laws and Constitution of the State. We 
all remember his grand orations in defense of outraged lib- 
erty and law. These utterances of his will live in history 
along with the best-prepared orations of men who have been 
made immortal. 

In common with your bereaved community, I, too, mourn 
the loss of a friend. His warm hand I have clasped from 
boyhood to the closing of your last court. 

"Friend after friend departs," 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 4OI 

And the heart-stricken and sad can only find relief in the 
memories of the past and the hopes of the future. Death 
comes, and the arm of affection cannot stay the stroke. In 
the midst of life it comes — invades the family-circle and 
bears away its victim to the tomb. It comes in ghastly 
form, as well as in sudden and resistless strokes; it comes 
to warn, and to remind us that we are mortal ; it comes to 
teach us, "So to number our days that we may apply our 
hearts unto wisdom." Beneath its touch man's proud in- 
tellect is dethroned ; and how low he lies ! The speaking 
eye is dimmed of its luster, and the warm heart stops its 
throbs. Let us, in this affliction, heed the note of warning 
as it comes from the new-made grave of our honored friend, 
"Be ye also ready! " 

I am yours, truly, E. H. Pottle. 

Atlanta, July 29, 1872. 

Hon. a. H. Stephens — My Dear Sir: During the many 
days which have passed since your bereavement, thoughts 
of your great sorrow have been ever before me. May I be 
allowed to express the sympathy I so deeply feel ? To re- 
alize how great the loss is to you, I have but to recall your 
hours of sleepless watching at the bedside of your brother 
when he was prostrated with measles at Manassas, and the 
privations to which you subjected yourself, when you were 
illy able to bear them, that you might minister to his com- 
fort. 

Let it solace you now, my friend, to remember how faith- 
fully you have discharged fraternal obligations ; and, al- 
though I know the kind offices were rendered by you in the 
spirit of love, not duty, yet that must have made them more 
grateful to him, and should make the memory of them the 
more comforting to you. You have another element of 
consolation in the knowledge that he was loved and revered 
by all who knew him personally, and by many who knew 
him only as the talented and distinguished statesman and 
the pure patriot. The great heart of Georgia sends forth 
to-day one universal throb of regret at the loss which she, 
as a commonwealth, has sustained in his death. The good 
and true cannot help but admire the fealty with which he 
clung to his principles, while so many are bowing to the 



402 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

high priest of radicalism ; and all feel that he has left us at 
a time "when our need was the sorest," of such wise coun- 
sels as he was in the habit of imparting, and the example 
of such unflinching integrity, as he ever exhibited. When 
the pure and excellent of earth pass through the silent halls 
of death, they find them but the entrance to heaven's efful- 
gent glory. Can we wish our loved and lost back amid 
the turmoil and strifes of this world, when we remember 
that they dwell with God, and that the Lamb, who is in the 
midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them to 
living fountains of water, and God shall wipe all tears from 
their eyes? 

Hoping that the rich consolation of the gospel may sus- 
tain you under your heavy trial, and. commending you to 
Him who alone can speak comfort to your sorrowing heart, 
I remain, with the highest admiration and most profound 
respect, 

Your friend, Mrs. James Hine. 

Sandy Grove, July i8, 1872. 
Hon. a. H. Stephens — 

"Friend after friend departs — 
Wlio has not lost a friend ? 
There is union here of hearts 
t That finds not here an end." 

This stanza comes to me, unbidden, upon the announce- 
ment of the departure of your brother to the spirit-world; 
and I hasten to give utterance, as far as language is ade- 
quate, to my unfeigned grief and sympathy. I sympathize 
with you, with his widowed wife and orphaned children, 
with his many friends and admirers, and with the State at 
large. There are but few hearts, within this numerous 
circle, that will not heave a sigh that Linton Stephens has 
passed from the scenes and activities of earth. He was so 
noble in his nature, so stern and inflexible in his devotion 
to truth and principle, so able and eloquent in their advo- 
cacy, so energetic and constant in his labor for the public 
welfare, that he had impressed himself so deeply and 
broadly upon the general mind, that he had already, thotigh 
comparatively young, won the conviction in the popular 
heart, that he was ubiquitous, not in a personal sense, but 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 403 

in the sense that his fame occupied a field commensurate 
with the vast interests of the country. 

But words of praise from me are nothings : they are emp- 
tiness to you, who filled for him alike the place of father 
and brother, and cherished both affections with the deepest 
intensity ; they are less than emptiness to him who is be- 
yond their reach ; but I utter them, most sincerely, for what 
they may be worth for your consolation. Oh, how myste- 
rious are the ways of Providence ! What lessons of pro- 
found humility are inculcated by the majesty of His foot- 
steps ! How uncertain is our probation here ! How the 
path of life is bestrewed by monuments of sorrow and dis- 
appointed hopes ! What is called death is always sad and 
unwelcome to survivors. Even when infancy is cut down, 
like a bud, by the wintry blast, or old age is arrested in its 
tottering steps, tender affections are severed, and anguish 
exudes from every wound until the heart overflows with 
bitter grief; but when manhood, in his prime — in the me- 
ridian of intellectual maturity, and in the midst of useful- 
ness, surrounded by all that makes the present happy, and 
the future bright, in its promise of fame and distinction — 
is stricken down, the blow is crushing. But 

"Leaves have their time to fall, 

And flowers to wither in the North wind's breath, 
And stars to set ; but all — 
Thou hast all seasons for thine, O death!" 

Calm resignation to the will of God is our duty, and its 
performance is sweet, however mournful, when we recog- 
nize that He is our Father — "too wise to err and too good 
to be unkind." To him I commend you, and all the dear 
ones clad in weeds of woe by reason of this heavy bereave- 
ment. Take comfort in these reflections: that he lived a 
useful life, and leaves to his family the heritage of unsullied 
honor ; that, in our view of the mercy and wisdom of the 
Lord, he has been summoned at the very best time for him, 
and for those who loved him so fondly ; that he is not dead, 
but lives in the eternal world, the same identical man that 
he was here; that he has gone Jionif, just a little in advance 
of you and all of us, where, under the tutelage of angelic 
spirits, his intellectual and moral faculties will rise, and 
grow, and expand forever. 



404 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

I had a brief interview with him, last January, in Atlanta ; 
but the last time I had an opportunity for protracted con- 
versation with him was in Savannah, whilst we were attend- 
ing the Federal court, as counsel for Garsed. We talked 
frequently, and nearly always on religious topics, in which, 
I thought, he took pleasure. He listened to my views with 
deep interest ; he argued with me in many of them, and, 
as to others, he expressed no opinions; because, he said, 
' ' whilst he could not combat them, he did not rationally per- 
ceive their truth. " But he bought two or three new church 
works, intending to read them. I never learned, however, 
whether he read them, nor, if he did, what impression they 
made upon his mind. He was a lover of truth ; his mind 
was always open to its reception, and I have rarely met a 
man freer from prejudice and educational bias. He was a 
strong and original thinker. Few equaled him in force and 
perspicuity of language, and in the power of condensed, log- 
ical thought. I never conversed with him without pleasure 
and profit. I regret that the occasions of our meeting were 
so seldom. If he had remained here to the usual limit of 
man's appointed time, he would have had no superior, as 
he had few peers. He would have been a conspicuous figure 
among the greatest actors of his day, and wielded tremen- 
dous influence in public affairs. His love of country was 
animated with the courage of martyrdom ; and constitu- 
tional liberty had no more able and eloquent defender. His 
removal is a public calamity. But I will say no more. His 
eulogy is the place which he filled in the admiration, confi- 
dence, and affections of the people. May he rest in peace, 
and perennial laurel cluster around his memory! 

Mrs. Johnson, Gertrude, and Winder unite with me in 
these expressions of sympathy. The rest of my children 
are scattered. 

May the Lord bless, and console, and shield Linton's 
widow and orphans, and may He be the great Rock under 
whose shade you may retire, in this heavy tempest of sor- 
row, is the heart-felt prayer of 

Yours, most sincerely and faithfully, 

Herschel V. Johnson. 

Boston, Mass., July 26, 1872. 
My Dear Mr. Stephens — How my heart yearned towards 
you, and for you, when the telegram announced to us the 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 4O5 

death of Linton — and such a brother ! Not one in a million 
so tender, so kind, so generous, so brave as he. In one 
point of view, it did seem to me that the agony of sorrow 
might extinguish your life. On second thought, it came to 
my mind, ' ' According to thy day, so shall thy strength be. " 
Yes, our dear Mr. Stephes has schooled himself not to rely 
too much on exterior comforts — not to confide altogether 
in human affections ; but he cherishes entirely such a strong 
sense of divine love, that he will exclaim, at the weight and 
fullness of his grief, in most humble submission and Chris- 
tian cheerfulness, "Not my will, but thine be done! " 

When I first became acquainted with Linton, I entertained 
a very high respect and esteem for him. As I knew him 
better and more intimately, I began to love him ; and this 
love grew stronger and stronger every day; it was more 
like the affection of a dutiful son towards a loving father 
than anything else. I cannot tell you how terrible was the 
blow when it came upon us. I cannot at all realize, now, 
that I shall see his face no more in the flesh. Poor wife 
and poor children ! But Almighty God is good and merci- 
ful, and will have them in His holy keeping, and will be 
more than husband, father, and all, if they put their trust 
in Him. 

I have taken up my pen several times to say a word to 
you, but hesitated, and laid it down again. To-day, I have 
made the venture. My feeling was rather, if it could have 
been, to act somewhat like the friends of Job, who "sat 
down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, 
and spake not a word to him ; for they saw that his grief 
was very great ; " and I thought I ought to keep silence, 
and hesitated about expressing my deep sympathy for you ; 
but you might reply, like Job to his friends, "Miserable 
comforters are ye all ! " Still, I cannot, under the circum- 
stances, be entirely silent. I must at least tell you what I 
feel it is my part to do: I would kneel beside you, and the 
other dear ones Linton has left behind, in silent, earnest 
prayer, press you all to my heart, sustain the drooping 
heads, take the hands in loving pressure and sympathy, 
but speak not 

Ever faithfully yours, 

R. H. Salter. 



406 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

I am obliged to Pope Barrow, Esq., for the following ex- 
cellent portraiture of some of the capital features in Judge 
Stephens' character: 

" Vex not his ghost: O, let him pass! he hates him 
That would upon the rock of this tough world 
Stretch him out longer." 

Linton Stephens was one of the few — the very few — of 
whom it may be truly said, "None knew him but to love 
him." But to the thousands to whom his name and fame 
were familiar, and to many of those — perhaps a large ma- 
jority — who were numbered among his personal acquaint- 
ances, his real character was, in many of its best features, 
completely unknown. He cared not to reveal himself — in- 
deed, he seldom ever did, except to those who belonged to 
what I might call the inner-circle of his friends. The out- 
side world honored him, respected and trusted him ; for, 
however little they might know of him, that little was 
enough always to command confidence ; but his intimate 
friends, whilst they also entertained these same sentiments 
of admiration of his talents, and implicit faith in him as a 
man, felt for him that affection which the beautiful story of 
David and Jonathan has handed down to us as "passing the 
love of woman." Those who knew him best loved him 
best. There was no danger, in becoming better acquainted 
with him, of having any illusions destroyed which are so 
often the creatures of first acquaintance with men of fas- 
cinating minds. In his case, every impression he made 
upon an acquaintance, from first to last, was genuine and 
true. Nothing was done for effect. He was, at all times, 
natural and naive. As his real character and the generous 
proportions of his mind unfolded themselves more and more 
to his associates, it was hard to decide which to admire 
most, the pure and unsullied nature of the man, or the 
splendid intellectual powers with which he was endowed. 

My acquaintance with him dates back to my boyhood ; 
and I remember quite well the first impressions he made 
upon me ; they have never been erased nor altered. They 
were perfectly correct interpretations of his character, and 
have been strengthened and confirmed as years passed on ; 
and the slight acquaintance, then begun, ripened into a 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 407 

warm friendship, which continued, uninterruptedly, until 
his death. Judge Stephens possessed so many sterling 
attributes of mind and character, that it would be impossi- 
ble to speak of them all in the brief limits of a memoir like 
this, which is not purposed to inform the reader in regard 
to his character or his achievements, but to remind him ot 
some of his traits, and thereby serve, perhaps, to call up, 
in his own mind, many another familiar recollection of this 
great man. There are thousands in Georgia who, when 
they read these brief reminiscences, will each recall some 
half-forgotten experience of his own that is linked to the 
memory of Linton Stephens, which, for the time, perhaps, 
will carry his thoughts back with a softened heart, to freshen 
and deepen his recollections of him, and serve to keep his 
memory green among those whom he loved so well in life. 
I have found that all with whom I have spoken of him, 
since his death, who knew him as woll as I did, had formed 
the same impressions of his character, had cherished the 
same kind of incidental recollections of intercourse with 
him in life — all of them illustrative of his warm, generous, 
faithful, and affectionate nature — and have mourned his loss 
in their hearts almost as one dropped from the circle of their 
own hearth-stone. Few men have ever lived who were so 
true to themselves as to stamp themselves thus upon thou- 
sands of different men with the same identical impression. 
The influence which he exerted over his fellow-men was 
such as any man might well be proud of; and he well de- 
served it. It has been said by a very profound thinker, that 
there are two kinds of men who control and wield power 
over masses of their fellows : one is of that class to which 
great orators and poets belong; they persuade and reason 
men into acquiescence ; they present arguments and utter 
appeals to their hearers and readers, and produce, some- 
times, great results. But it is the great questions they dis- 
cuss, around which the interest gathers, and not the man 
himself The other class of men, according to this same 
philosopher, who make great leaders, are those who, with- 
out giving reasons, without striving in argument, and who, 
not turning aside from their line to examine the movements 
of others, are followed, and trusted, and appealed to in all 
emergencies. They inspire confidence ; they commit no 
blunders ; and, better than that, they are true to their faith, 
whatever it may be, even if it takes them to the stake. 



408 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

It has frequently occurred to me, in reading this analysis 
of great men, by Emerson — as he has classified them — that 
Judge Stephens united, in an extraordinary degree, some oi 
the best attributes of both classes. He possessed, in a large 
degree, the argumentative and persuasive powers of the 
orator; and, at the same time, he exerted an insensible in- 
fluence independent of these, and which, in one sense, was 
more powerful. There was great force in him ; no one 
could fail to realize it and feel it, who came in contact with 
him. Men followed him and trusted him, not doubting or 
fearing, because they knew he had no doubts nor fears him- 
self Such men are rare ; they are more valuable to their 
generation than it ever gives them credit for ; they do more 
good than is ever known, and prevent more harm ; their 
presence in a community or a State is a repressive on fraud 
and wrong. 

One of the most striking attributes, to the common eye, 
that Judge Stephens assumed, was in his profession as a 
lawyer, when engaged in the ccrtamina of the court-house. 
The Northern circuit was, during the whole of his career, 
renowned for the high rank of its bar, as gentlemen who 
united, in many instances, the highest accomplishments of 
legal learning to the most powerful and effective oratorical 
powers. Younger than most of the lawyers with whom he 
came in actual contact in his circuit, he was trained, from 
the beginning, to put forth his best energies and tax his 
great powers to the uttermost. Like a young gladiator just 
alighted in the arena, he had to measure swords with vet- 
erans whose sinews were toughened by a hundred conflicts. 
The name he has built for himself in that circuit best attests 
how, in all those years of arduous practice, his demeanor 
as a man, and his success as a lawyer, have endeared him 
to the hearts of the people, and elevated him to the highest 
rank' of the profession. 

In his manner and his methods of conducting an impor- 
tant case, it was easy to see that he was no imitator. He 
reminded you of nobody else. His success was very great. 
If he was satisfied that justice and right were all on his side, 
it was impossible for him to lose the case ; he was irresistible 
in such cases; he had the large faculty, in addressing juries, 
of giving them a clear insight into the case in his very open- 
ing sentences. To this one gift he owed many a triumph. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 4C9 

There were things in the practice of law, however, that 
always exasperated him to the last degree. One of these 
was a lying witness. If he found out that a witness was 
falsely swearing away his client's rights, his eyes, his fea- 
tures, and his whole form would show unmistakably that he 
was a dangerous man to trifle with. At such times, no or- 
dinary man could encounter his eye and utter a falsehood 
on the stand. 

But Linton Stephens was made for better times than these 
degenerate days. He would chafe himself to death at the 
corruption which, in the last years of his life, he saw, but 
could not prevent. Bound to earth by as many ties, both 
of affection and duty, as any one of us who is left, it is yet 
better for him as it is; but as for us, who knew him, and 
loved him, and who now mourn for him, when we chance 
to revisit scenes that are intimately associated with him, we 
cannot repress a sigh 

" For the touch of a vanished hand, 
The sound of a voice that is still." 



Yours, very truly, 

Pope Barrow. 

Supreme Court of Georgia, 

Saturday, October 5, 1872. 

The honorable court met pursuant to adjournment. 

Present — their Honors Hiram Warner and H. K. McCay 
and W. W. Montgomery, Judges. 

Upon motion of Hon. Robert Toombs, it is ordered that 
the following memorial and accompanying resolutions, com- 
memorative of Hon. Linton Stephens, be spread upon the 
minutes. 

The committee appointed by the Supreme Court of Geor- 
gia, during this term, to report "suitable resolutions com- 
memorative of Judge Stephens," submit the following 

Report : 

The bench and bar of this court are again called upon to 
hold a meeting of sorrow, comn:iemorative of another pf 

36 



4IO BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

their most distinguished, vahied, and beloved professional 
brethren. The hand of death, which has recently stricken 
the name of Linton Stephens from the roll of the living, 
leaves not upon our record a more perfect model of a pure, 
able, learned, and upright magistrate ; of a just, profound, 
brilliant, and successful lawyer; of an earnest, self-sacrific- 
ing, devoted patriot; of a great-hearted, true man, whose 
life was spent in the practice of virtue, the pursuit and vin- 
dication of truth, and in the service of his fellow-men. 

Linton Stephens was born in what was then Wilkes 
county — now the county of Taliaferro — in this State, on 
the first day of July, 1823. His father, of Scotch-L'ish de- 
scent, was a gentleman of unusual education and intellectual 
attainments, in the day and among the people with whom his 
lot was cast, and his family ranked with the first-class of 
the early settlers of our commonwealth He was left an 
orphan in childhood, with a slender patrimony ; but he had 
great advantages in his youth, of which he availed himself 
to an extent rare among the youth of our country. 

The providence which deprived him of a father's foster- 
ing protection committed him to the care of one pre-emi- 
nently qualified to discharge the duties of a father, brother, 
protector, and friend. Deep, fervent, unbounded fraternal 
affection molded that grand development of his moral and 
intellectual character, which won the confidence, the affec- 
tion, and admiration of all who knew him. Having been 
thoroughly prepared under this training, he entered the 
Freshman class of Franklin College, the University of Geor- 
gia, in 1839, when sixteen years of age. He was immedi- 
ately recognized as the head of a large class of Georgia's 
chosen sons — which position he maintained throughout his 
collegiate course — and graduated with the first honor of his 
Ahfia Mater without a competitor and without a rival. 
After leaving college, he was placed in the office of one of 
your committee to study law, and was soon afterwards sent 
to the University of Virginia, where he graduated at the 
head of the law-class under Judge Tucker, who foresaw and 
foretold his great professional success. After graduating 
in law, at the University of Virginia, he went to Harvard, 
in Massachusetts, to attend the lectures of Judge Story, of 
the Supreme Court of the United States, and remained 
there until Judge Story's death, when he came to Washing- 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 4II 

ton City and spent a winter in attending the Supreme Court 
of the United States and the debates in Congress. He re- 
turned to Georgia in 1846, having given three years to pre- 
paration for his profession — thoroughly prepared to bear 
the armor which he put on — and was admitted to the bar, 
in his native county, in 1846. 

He located at Crawfordville, in his native county, and 
became a leader of causes in the court-house before he was 
scarcely known out of it. In 1849, he was elected to rep- 
resent Taliaferro county in the Legislature, and re-elected 
in 1850 and 185 i. 

Thoroughly versed in the principles of constitutional gov- 
ernment, his compatriots immediately recognized his merit 
and genius, and placed him at the post of labor and of 
honor. 

In 1852, he married the daughter of Judge James Thom- 
as, of Sparta, and removed to Hancock county; and the 
next year, the people of Hancock again called him into the 
public service as their representative in the Legislature, and 
continued to re-elect him until 1855, when he was a candi- 
date for Congress in a district opposed to his political opin- 
ions by a large majority, to which his power and influence 
reduced to an extent which made his defeat a triumph of 
his principles. In 1857, he contested the same district with 
the same honorable result. In 1859, J^^S^ Stephens was 
appointed to the Supreme Court of the State, and was unan- 
imously confirmed by the Legislature to this honorable post, 
and, after thirteen months' service in that position, resigned 
it on account of ill-health. 

We pass over his judicial record; it will pass down to 
future ages in our reports. His judgments were clear, con- 
cise, exhaustive expositions of the law and facts of the cases 
decided by him, and contain no word which his friends 
would wish to blot. 

In i860, he was elected to the Secession convention of 
the State of Georgia, and voted against the resolution. He 
acknowledged the right, but opposed the policy ; but after 
the resolution was passed, and that grand, historic act was 
accomplished, true to his principles and allegiance to his 
State, he put his whole strength, and power, and soul into 
the cause of his country. He immediately returned to his 
home, raised a company for the vindication of the right, 



412 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

and joined the Fifteenth Regiment of Georgia Volunteers, 
and was elected lieutenant-colonel of that regiment; went to 
Virginia to meet the foe, and continued in the Army of 
Northern Virginia until 1862, when his health compelled 
him to retire from military service. Upon his return home, 
he was again called into public service by the people of his 
county, who again elected him to the Legislature in 1862, 
and continued him in that capacity until the end of the war; 
but when his State was invaded in 1863, he raised a bat- 
talion of cavalry and again entered into military service for 
the defense of his native land, and served until the spring 
of 1864. When the invader was devastating our land, he 
again put on his sv/ord, and stood in the front until com- 
pelled to retire, from ill-health, to the duties of a legislator. 

Having lost his first wife before the war, in 1867 Judge 
Stephens married Miss Mary W. Salter, of Boston, Massa- 
chusetts. 

From the surrender of our armies, in 1865, to the time of 
his death, on the 14th of July, 1872, Judge Stephens was 
actively engaged in a very large and lucrative practice of 
his profession ; and his last grand and successful effort was 
made in the vindication of public justice, and in the advo- 
cacy of the rights of the people. 

His mind was peculiarly adapted to the profession which 
he had selected, elevated and adorned, clear, vigorous, an- 
alytical, and comprehensive ; it seized truth, facts, and law 
with an iron grasp, and stripped sophistry and error naked 
to the mortal gaze of all beholders ; while his stern integ- 
rity and devotion to truth gave irresistible power to his lofty 
intellect. 

Judge Stephens was a husband — a father ; and here his 
genial, kind, and affectionate nature shone with peculiar 
brilliancy, shedding happiness and joy over a household in 
which he was peculiarly blessed. But we forbear to enter 
those sacred precincts in which there is no human conso- 
lation. 

The committee offer the following resolutions : 

Resolved, I. That, in the death of Linton Stephens, the 
bench and bar of Georgia have lost an eminent jurist, and 
the country one of the best, ablest, and truest sons, whose 
memory we should perpetuate for the benefit of future gen- 
erations. 



JUDGE LINTON gTEPHENS. 413 

Resolved, 2. That we respectfully tender to his bereaved 
widow and children the heart-felt sympathy of the bench 
and bar, and the officers of this court, whose warm friend- 
ship and affection he so well deserved and so fully possessed. 
Resolved, 3. That, in token of this, we will wear the 
usual badge of mourning during thirty days. 

Resolved, 4. That a copy of this report and resolutions be 
transmitted to Mrs. Stephens, for the family, and that this 
court be requested to have them entered on its minutes, 
and that the gazettes of the State be requested to publish 
them. 

Robert Toombs, 
Charles J. Jenkins, 
R. F. Lyon, 
IvERSON L. Harris, 
Henry L. Benning. 

[ From the Atlanta Constitution. ] 

Judge Linton Stephens, 

Quis desiderio sit pudor aut modus 
Tarn cari capitis? 

'' What shame or limit can there be 
In yearning for so loved a form ? " 

In our private grief for our friend, it is difficult to realize 
the extent of the public loss which has befallen Georgia in 
the death of this her distinguished and trusted son. Nor 
can its proportions be fully appreciated until we get further 
from it. As one who feels it deeply, in both its public and 
private aspects, I am constrained, in advance of this full 
realization, to pay the partial tribute called for at once by 
affection and admiration. If the portraiture be at all life- 
like, it will receive many a response from saddened hearts 
throughout the length and breadth of the State. 

Three great qualities fitted him for eminent public use- 
fulness : great capacity, great honesty, and great fidelity. 
These properties inspired their proper counterpart, and gave 
him (what was no less necessary to usefulness) the entire, 
deserved, and familiar confidence of the people of his na- 
tive State. 

His capacity was great, not only of tJiougJit, extending 
over a very wide range, but also of expression, and that not 



414 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

limited to thinkers only, like himself, but embracing the 
common mind as well. 

He did not live and reason apart from other men, but was 
one of their number, in accord with their modes and habits, 
understood them, and conveyed his own thoughts to them 
in strong, vigorous Anglo-Saxon, like Bullion, with a plain 
stamp. 

His honesty was not less great and varied than his intel- 
lectual endowments. It pervaded his public and private 
life — his heart, head, and tongue. He was an honest seeker 
after truth. Falsehood, in all its forms, he detested and 
despised. He loved the truth in his heart. His intellectual 
appetite craved truth as its proper nutriment, and his tongue 
was equally candid and sincere. His manners exactly ex- 
pressed him. He was, in fact, just what he seemed to be. 

Such qualities justly commanded the public confidence, 
resting on a strong foundation of tried merit. That slow 
growth had become, after long and varied tests, deeply 
rooted and vigorous in the public mind, and it met no 
checks or drawbacks on his part ; for he was honest with 
himself, and his gold had been first tried in the fire, for his 
own use, before it was offered for currency among others. 

And so he was a bulwark of public virtue. Dishonesty 
shrank from his presence ; tolerant in all else, for this he 
had little tolerance. Honesty rested fearlessly upon his 
strong championship, and felt safe in his hands. 

A powerful intellect, of extraordinary breadth and scope, 
yet as acute as it was comprehensive — capable of vigorous 
action upon subtle and delicate points — a grasp of a subject 
perfectly vise-like — a nervous, direct energy of expression, 
which cut through all vapors — were at his command. These 
faculties equally fitted him for the investigation of law or 
of fact. A clear, general view of the entire subject, in all 
its relations, and in its just proportions, enabled him to sys- 
tematize his thoughts and adjust himself to a case with won- 
derful rapidity. He never rested in investigation until he 
touched bottom, and, from the rock, once found, he could 
hardly be dislodged by any form of sophistry. If he had 
any difficulty, it was in his hearers — in their want of dis- 
crimination to perceive real, not fanciful, distinctions. But 
this very infirmity was incorporated in his scheme of pre- 
senting his case, so that he could show nice points even to 
dull eyes. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 415 

But it was, after all, the honest heart behind all this — of 
which the intellect and will were the mere executive officers 
and agents — which secured the public confidence that, with 
all these faculties, he would_ do good, and not harm ; that 
he was not easily deceived himself, and would not willingly 
deceive others. Of his powers in that direction, we cannot 
speak ; for they were not put to the test. 

The warmth and sincerity of his personal friendships ex- 
plain something of the grief, as well as sense, of public loss 
which his death has occasioned. His public and private 
character were all of a piece ; only, in his private intercourse, 
there was incomparably more of tenderness and marked 
kindness than the severely logical character of his intellect 
would have led those to suppose who only knew him in argu- 
ment. Not comparatively alone, but positively, he was 
considerate and kind in an eminent degree, in his intercourse 
with others, and never gave willful or intentional offense to 
any honest rhan, to any dull man, to the weak or to the 
helpless. 

All these traits were big, plain, and distinct — no mistake 
about them, nor about the man ; and the people knew that 
they understood him. He had been tested until they were 
satisfied; he had been seen weighed in the balance again 
and again, under very varying conditions, and not found 
wanting. We do not mean that he was without faults, for 
he was a man ; but they were not secret or disguised. He 
wore no mask, and his faults were better known than their 
palliations and his struggles against them. Suffice it to say, 
they were not those of a selfish nature. Let none judge of 
them harshly — only sorrowfully — for they injured himself 
more than others, and deceived no one. 

His death occurred in his full intellectual prime. His sun 
went down at the high noon of his faculties. These were 
very remarkable, and very reliable. He was grown in a 
great school, accustomed to emergencies, full of resources, 
and ready with them — a trained intellectual athlete, belong- 
ing to himself His self-reliance vv'as great and well-founded, 
and inspired the full confidence of his hearers. Few men 
had so thorough possession of their own faculties. 

As a judge, his decisions were founded on principle — 
not authority. He made authority — he was authority — for 
he found a solid basis ever before he began to build. His 



4l6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

decisions needed little bolstering ; they could stand alone. 

But he exemplified a most rare combination of gifts — be- 
ing great, not only as a judge, but as an advocate, before 
court or jury, or on the hustings, in cases civil or criminal, 
upon questions of law or fact, in the preparation or at the 
trial, or in the examination of witnesses. 

Indeed, a measured estimate of his faculties would be 
regarded extravagant. Such power did a high intellect ac- 
quire, under the guidance of honesty. He grappled with 
great problems with a singular mixture of abstract and prac- 
tical power, and subtlety and common sense, in his percep- 
tions of truth ; and, strange to say, where he went himseh 
into the very heart of these problems, he was usually able 
to carry others along with him. 

This brief notice would be incomplete, if I failed to say 
he was a firm believer in Christianity. I remember the 
marked emphasis with which he once expressed this con- 
viction, with that characteristic clearness and boldness which 
admitted of no misconception, in the words, "I believe 
Christ is God. " His further remark was, substantially, that, 
with this great intervention of Deity, all lesser and ancillary 
miracles, introducing the Christian system to mankind, fol- 
lowed on proper evidence, as matters of course. As his 
manner was, the great, huge fact stood out first, unmistak- 
able, and its qualifications and modes were superadded af- 
terwards. 

The public loss is indeed great — the gap left, wide and 
yawning. Such capacities, so handled, lost at any time, to 
any State, would be a calamity. By Georgia, and just now, 
it is peculiarly felt; and yet, to say farewell to the man is 
harder than to say it to the statesman, the jurist, the pub- 
lic servant. That respect for his character which delighted 
to do him public honor, and to speak his praise as the peer 
of the first statesmen of the country, is lost in that deeper 
feeling of affection which found familiar expression in sim- 
ply calling him "Linton" — a name which, in the wide limits 
of Georgia, and in many a circle beyond, is full of mean- 
ing, and needs no appendages and no tribute. " Linton ! " 
It calls up the whole, at once, of that noble nature in which 
was garnered so much of public and private worth, of in- 
tellectual treasure and training, of friendship, honesty, and 
truth. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 41/ 

If such the loss to the public and his friends, what is it 
to the nearer circle? We cannot intrude here. We can 
but commend them, in this hour, to a consolation and sym- 
pathy above what humanity can give. There is an awful 
Power to which all must bow. This Power, alone, has the 
balm to heal the wounds which it has made, and bind up 
the hearts it has broken. 

Mercifully, each day draws us closer to the future — leaves 
a veil betwixt us and the past. The earth of our State now 
teems with the loved and lost, who went to her bosom be- 
fore the lapse of three score years and ten. Another name, 
worthy of Westminster Abbey, is added to the honored 
dead of Georgia. 

Samuel Barnett. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE STATE CONVENTION. 

Death of Judge Stephens. 

Hon. George F. Pierce, of Hancock, introduced the fol- 
lowing resolutions: 

1. Resolved by the Democratic party of Georgia in conven- 
tion assembled. That, in the recent death of Hon. Linton 
Stephens, an elected delegate to this convention, the cause 
of constitutional liberty has lost one of its ablest and noblest 
defenders. 

2. Resolved, That Georgia has lost a son whose intellect, 
cultivation, fidelity, integrity, pure private character, and 
devotion to principle, illustrated on the bench, at the bar, 
in the forum, in legislative halls, and in social life, reflected 
honor upon his native State; and, at this time, when his 
noble qualities of mind and heart are peculiarly needed, she 
mourns his death as a mother a beloved son on whom she 
could depend under the sternest trials and in the darkest 
hours. 

3. Resolved, That his well-earned fame is the heritage ot 
all true Georgians, and it shall be our pleasure to cherish 
and emulate it. 

4. Resolved, That we tender to his distinguished brother, 
the Hon. A. H. Stephens, our heart-felt sympathy; and, 



4^8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

commending his wife and children to the tender care of the 
God of the widow and the fatherless, we beg to assure them 
that, in every Georgian, they have a friend who will deem 
it a privilege to serve them. 

After submitting the resolutions, Mr. Pierce .said : 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention — For 
myself and associate delegates from the county of Hancock, 
and for the stricken and bereaved county which we have 
the honor to represent in this convention, I move the adop- 
tion of the resolutions which have just been read. I con- 
ceive it to be eminently proper that the Democratic party 
of Georgia should deplore the untimely death of the distin- 
guished gentleman to whom the resolutions relate ; for, in 
all the length and breadth of the land, none could be found 
more steadfastly attached to its principles, and none more 
valiant always to battle for their defense. I think it ex- 
tremely becoming that Georgia should mourn the loss of 
her illustrious son; for, among all her children — those who 
yet live to do her honor, and those whose dust is now min- 
gling with his in her honored soil — there was none whose 
heart pulsated to the common mother with stronger and 
more earnest love. It is well that the voice of angry con- 
tention should be hushed to silence to-day, and that all the 
lovers of constitutional liberty, who are assembled here, 
should join in common love to do him honor; for, since the 
days when Hampden and Sydney died, none have lived 
who loved liberty more dearly than did he. 

I do not propose to-day, Mr. Chairman, to undertake to 
pronounce any eulogium upon the illustrious dead. Let 
this be done — not by those who loved him more, for there 
were none, but by those abler to do it well ; for, sir, only 
a master's hand should strike the chords which make the 
music to sing his praise. It is my purpose, in the name of 
my county, simply to submit the resolutions which have 
been read, and to commit to Georgia's keeping the price- 
less memories of his public life. 

When this duty shall have been discharged, Hancock's 
delegation will return to their people and his — to those who 
knew him best and loved him most — and, joined together, 
we shall keep, in hallowed remembrance, his local service 
and his private worth. 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 4I9 

And, standing here to-day, sir, in the midst of Georgia's 
distinguished Hving, and in presence of her honored dead, 
remembering all the glories which cluster along the line of 
her history, it is my privilege, for my county, to say that 
we proudly feel that if we have contributed nothing more 
to the greatness of our mother-State, the gift of the distin- 
guished ability and distinguished virtue of Linton Stephens 
makes as bright a jewel as sparkles in the gathered treas- 
ures of her glorious past ! 

Mr. Pierce was followed by Hon. Julian Hartridge, who 
said: 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention — I 
beg leave to second the gentleman's motion. While I rec- 
ognize the ability of the gentleman to do justice to his hon- 
ored and illustrious colleague — now, alas! numbered with 
the dead — I ask the privilege to render my tribute to the 
memory of the noble deceased. True, he was the honored 
citizen of a single county, yet he belonged to the whole 
State, which, aside from the ties of family and relations, he 
loved better than all the world — better than the emolu- 
ments of wealth, honors, distinction, and power combined. 
Wherever the State's interest, principles, honor, and integ- 
rity were concerned, there his heart beat, and beat warmly. 

I beg the privilege of seconding the motion of the gen- 
tleman from Hancock, the home of the distinguished dead. 
Though he lived in a community remote from my portion 
of the State, yet, in spirit, he was ever near, and our hearts 
ever beat in true accord in the desire to improve, uphold, 
and maintain the honor and integrity of our common State, 
and promote the welfare of the noble old commonwealth 
that gave us birth ; and, therefore, we feel that he belonged 
to us as well as to others; for, as it is in a private family, 
when a loved child dies, a chord is touched, a sympathy is 
excited, and a tear is to be shed over the last and lamented 
remains, so it is when a man, distinguished by virtue, intel- 
lect, and devotion to State — a champion of her honor and 
liberties — is cut off by an all-wise Providence, then every 
citizen feels as if one of his family has died. 

Therefore, I lay the humble tribute to the memory of an 
honored and beloved fellow-citizen, and to the dead brother 



420 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

of one whose hearth-stone is draped in sorrow and desola- 
tion ; and, though one brother is mouldering in the grave — 
sacred sepulchre of a departed patriot — there is another 
still left, who has, is now, and will ever be dear to Georgia, 
whose heart, clothed in sackcloth, is bowed in humility to 
his God, and whose head, venerable with wisdom and age, 
is covered with ashes. 

Hon. Warren Akin said: 

Mr. Chairman — I beg to bring sorne tribute to the mem- 
ory of the noble and distinguished dead. The gentleman 
from Hancock, when he spoke of his stricken and bereaved 
community, would have been more correct to state that 
Georgia had been stricken and bereaved. 

I have known the deceased long and well. I have seen 
him at the bar of justice, in the forum, in the assembly, on 
the bench — everywhere, and I have ever found him a man 
of truth, honor, and principle, and of all the ennobling vir- 
tues becoming a man and a patriot — always reliable, honest, 
and avowed in everything that pertained to his associations 
with his fellow-man, and his doctrines regarding National 
or State policy. 

If opposed, he was ever honorable and liberal. He loved 
the truth, and despised all that was low and mean. Ever 
ready to co-operate with the good and patriotic, he made 
no compromise with the wicked. He was a hero among 
the fearless, and a terror to the dishonest and the evil-doer. 

I hope the resolutions of the gentleman from Hancock 
will be adopted by a rising vote. Linton Stephens — that 
loved name — he sleeps the sleep of death ! yet, while Geor- 
gia has patriots, though she should lie groveling in the dust 
under a conqueror's heel, subdued to despair with the mel- 
ancholy music of the victor's clanking chains, or should she 
mount higher and assert triumphantly her liberties and her 
honor; while there are women who love free government — 
and, thank God ! they do love it with the warmest pulsa- 
tions of their patriotic hearts — there will be a hallowed re- 
membrance of Linton Stephens, the champion of his State's 
and country's honor, and the valiant defender of his beloved 
people. 

Hon. Albert R. Lamar said: 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 421 

Mr. President — I trust I shall not we^ry the patience of 
this convention if I ask a moment in which to lay an offer- 
ing upon the grave of my friend — a friend whose devotion 
and fidelity outlived political vicissitudes, and yielded only 
to a common conqueror. It is meet that Georgia should 
pay funeral rites to one of her noblest sons. 

It is proper that we, his friends and companions, should 
send words of condolence and sympathy to his stricken 
household ; and I may safely say that there is not a heart 
in this assembly that does not cherish a tender feeling for 
him whose hearth-stone has been made dark and desolate 
by this terrible affliction. 

The time and the occasion will not permit me to pass an 
eulogium upon the character and services of Linton Ste- 
phens ; but the future historian may find, in his name and 
fame, much with which to adorn and ennoble the annals of 
these troublous times. 

He was a Spartan in all the sterner virtues of manhood — 
a Bayard in courage, integrity, and accomplishments. We, 
who have seen him face fearful odds in vindication and de- 
fense of the rights of his people, have had cause to say: 

" How high a pitch his resolution soars ! " 

I can recall a recent incident which illustrates the salient 
point in his character: At the late convention which pre- 
ceded this, he stood almost unaided and alone in a contest, 
upon the other side of which were arrayed many of the 
most cherished friends of his life. 

There are gentlemen here who can bear testimony as to 
how he bore himself in that contest. 

You and I, Mr. President, will remember how a gentle- 
man, returning from the room of the Committee on Busi- 
ness, with voice and face aglow with admiration, remarked 
to me, "Is not Linton Stephens a man of iron soul! " 

He was, indeed, sir; and if mortals are permitted to take 
into another world the temperaments of this, we may feel 
assured that our departed friend is steering his barque on 
eternity's ocean, with a sublime and unfaltering faith that 
he will reach a haven of rest in the sunlight of Mercy and 
Love on the other shore. 

Mr. President, the mute faces* that look down upon us 

*The walls of the Representative hall, at Atlanta, are adorned with 
large, life-size portraits of James Jackson, Andrew Jackson, Franklin, 
Crawford, Troup, Clarke, Howell Cobb, Jefferson, and o'thers. 



422 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 

from these walls to-day are fitting reminders that broad 
acres, crowded marts, beautiful temples, and hoarded mill- 
ions are the least of the great elements which constitute a 
State. They tell us that brave and virtuous men are the 
greatest glories of the commonwealth ; and in the heroic 
mold in which these men were cast was cast Linton Ste- 
phens, body and soul. 

But one moon has waxed since he sat here in the prime 
and plenitude of vigorous health and intellectual prowess. 
In the night that shall follow this day, that same moon will 
shed her waning sheen upon the spot where he sleeps in 
the embrace of his honored mother! 

In time, we, too, sir, shall cease our strifes, and our pride, 
our ambition, and our hopes will follow us to the grave ! 
In view, then, of this sudden and startling blow, which has 
fallen in our midst, may we not, with bowed heads and 
burdened hearts, exclaim : 

" What shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue ! " 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 423 



JUDGE LINTON STEPHENS. 



Obiit 14th July, 1S72. 



[The following tribute to the memory of the Hon. Linton 
Stephens is from the pen of a niece of Henry W. Longfel- 
low, the American poet, who has attained so much distinc- 
tion in the Eastern as well as the Western continent. We 
feel that our readers will, as we do, highly appreciate this 
tribute, not only from the tone of its touching sympathy, 
but from the source from which it comes. — Editors Sun.] 

Another noble name is added 
To the list of shrined dead ; 
/ Another strong, grand form departed 

To his lowly, narrow bed ! 

Another guiding hand is taken— 

One more heart is calm and still ; 
O my God ! 'tis now in anguish — 

Bow me to Thy higher will ! 

Gone, in all his prime and vigor, 

Passed from out the field of life ; 
But he bore himself as conqueror. 

Nobly in that weary strife ! 

. To Thy feet, O Holy Jesus, 

Now we bring this crushing load ; 
Only by Thy help and guidance 
Can we tread this thorny road. 

In Thy hands, we then, confiding. 

Leave the one to us so dear — 
Leave until a spirit risen 

In Thy glory shall appear! 
Boston, August II, iS-j2, Mari.\n Adki.f. Longfei.i.ow. 



424 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 



(From the Atlanta Sun.) 

LINTON STEPHENS. 



BY A. R. WATSON. 



I. 

Oh, Eagle of our gentle Georgia clime, 

Eyried so near the sky ! 
Whose sturdy wings beat strong against our time- 

Of never-flinching eye ! 

11. 
Of sternest pulse, and eager, bounding flight. 

Touching the sun-tipped brow 
That domes the top of fame's imperial height, . 

Where eyrie such as thou ! 

III. 
Oh, Eagle ! stricken from our Georgia skies, 

And stretched upon the plam. 
With the full blaze of morning in thine eyes. 

Ours is the awful pain ! 

IV. 

Oh, Archer! that, amid the quivering strife. 

Winged swift thy truest darts. 
And, through the core of his majestic life, 

Smit deep into our hearts ! 



Oh, conqueror — Death ! thrice victor, pass along, 

Trophied above the past ! 
Our pulse of greatness, erewhile brave and strong 

Is at its ebb at last ! 

VI. 

A little room is all that's needed now — 

Oh, mother earth, be kind ! 
Methinks your breast should feel a newer glow 

With dust like his enshrined. 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 



Addison, Appreciation of 115 

Akin, Warren, Remarks of, occasioned by death of Stephens . . . 420 

Alfriend, Alfred, Letter of advice to 275 

Alfriend, Dr. E. W 53, 184, 384 

American party, Organization and early dissolution of 1 16 

Ancients contrasted with the moderns 36 

Anthony, Rev. Samuel 205 

Aristocracy, True z's. false 19 

Barnett, Samuel, Letters to 295, 354 

Tribute to memory of Stephens 413 

Barrow, Pope, Reminiscences of Stephens 406 

Benning, Henry L., Criticism on history, (Note) 72 

One of Supreme Court committee to report resolutions on death 

of Stephens 413 

Bird, J. L 10, 39, 43 

Law-partner of Stephens 92 

Bleckley, Logan E., Estimate of Stephens as a judge 165 

Brown, A. S., Personal collision with, subsequent correspondence 

and reconciliation with 328, 329 

Brown, Joseph E., Nominated for Governor 127 

Stephens' estimate of, 3 271, 275, 287 

Bryan, Mrs. Mary E 206 

Bullard, Ward, Second teacher of Stephens 7 

Bulwer, Estimate of 18, 25, 387 

Burch, R. S 53 

Calhoun, J. C, Appreciation of 281 

Unfortunate nomenclature in calling the "State's veto" "Nul- 
lification" 349 

Cass, Lewis 51 

Clay, Henry, Account of speech before American Colonization 

Society 85 

Anecdote of, by Crittenden , . 87 



JL^ 



426 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 

Clark, R. H., Recollections of Stephens' speech, at Milledgeville, 

against removing the capitol, and its effect 393 

Clinch, General D. L., Opinion of prudence and wholesomeness of 

observing forms of etiquette 65 

Anecdote told by 69 

Joke on . . , 86 

Cobb, Howell, Trick on the Washington hackman 49, 62 

Opinion of Linton's talents 92 

Elected Governor of Georgia . . 106, 128, 221, 259, 260, 264, 265 

Cobb, T. R. R., Mention of by Rev. Dr. Curry 12 

Rapid rise in profession of the law 91, 144 

College Honors, Estimate put upon 47 

Common-place book. Importance of keeping 24 

Confederate debt, Opposition to indorsement of 269 

Connell, Cosby 175, 181, 187, 197, 198, 230, 263, 268 

Conscription Act, Opposition to the principle 245 

Constitution, Account of formation of, and of its leading supporters 

and opponents 27 

Crawford, M. J., Letters to on chairmanship of State Democratic Ex- 
ecutive Committee 316, 323 

Crittenden, J. J., Anecdote of Clay 87, 207 

Experience as soldier in war of 1812 244 

Deafness, Advantages of 76 

Diplomatic Dinner at Washington, Description of 53 

Douglas, S. A., Course on Kansas Constitution reviewed 129 

Position on Central-American question 136, 220, 235 

DuBose, C. W 223, 227, 232, 384 

Eloquence, Difference between spoken and written 62 

Ewing, Thomas, Puns of 71 

Excess, The vice of government 350 

Fielder, Herbert, Letter to 326 

Letter to, on the true theory of government and the necessity 

of checks against excess 349 

Impressions of Stephens 396 

Foster, Dr. Thomas, Early advocate of construction of Western and 

Atlantic Railroad, (Note) 299 

Opinion of Caesar 299 

Fouche, Simpson, Prepares Linton for college : Reminiscences of the 

boy 8 

Founders of the Government, Character and principles of 26 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 427 

Gartrell, L. J 10 

General Assembly of 1849, Distinguished persons composing it . . 93 

Gibbon, Estimate of 47 

Government and Society, Their nature and analysis of 281 

Grammar, Instances of popular errors of, in speaking and writing . . 29 

Grier, Aaron 5 

Grier, Margaret, Her character 3 

Grier, Robert, (Note) 3 

Grier, Robert C, (Note) 3 

Habeas Corpus, Resolutions on suspension of writ, introduced in the 

General Assembly 269 

Hambleton, J. P 235 

Hamilton, A., Character and opinions 28 

The Federalist 81 

Harris, Iverson L., Letter to, on miracles 210 

Letter to, on dissenting opinion in Supreme Court 308 

One of Supreme Court committee on death of Stephens . . . 413 

Harry, Body-servant of A. H. Stephens 95, 96 

Hartridge, Julian, Remarks in convention commemorative of Ste- 
phens 419 

Hayes, Cornelia 5 

Henderson, R. J., Fitness for brigadier-generalship in Confederate 

army 260 

Henry, Patrick, Opposed adoption of the Constitution 27 

Hill, B. H., Advocates coalition between Bell and Douglas men, in 

i860, to defeat Lincoln 227, 236 

Hill, Joshua, Defeats Stephens for Congress in 1857 . . . 127, 136, 139 

Hine, Mrs. James, Letter of condolence 401 

History, Method of studying 30 

Independence, Manly 19 

Jackson, Professor James, Practical joke on 15 

Jefferson, Thomas, Advocated adoption of the United States Consti- 
tution 27 

Jenkins, Charles J 106, in, 413 

Johnson, Andrew, Repudiates the Sherman-Johnson Convention of 

1865, after surrender of Confederate army 288 

Johnson, Herschel V., Elected Governor ill 

Appoints Stephens counsel for Georgia in controversy with 

Alabama 122 

Speech at Macon 223 

Stephens favors his election to United States Senate .... 352 

Letter to editor 397 

Letter of condolence to A. H. S 402 



428 ANALYTICAL INDEX. ^ 

Johnson, James 223 

Johhson, Sam., First reporter of parliamentary debates 102 

Johnston, Malcolm 354 

Johnston, Mark 22 

Johnston, R. M., Personal relations with Stephens lo7 

Law-partnership, Ih. : Reminiscences of Stephens . . . 177, 255 

Lamar, A. R., Remarks in State convention on occasion of Stephens' 

death 419 

Lane, A. J., Letter to 244 

Lewis, M. W., Reminiscences of Stephens 390 

Lies, Best way to avoid telling ^'- modest^'' ones 248 

Lindsay, John, Character of 4 

Lindsay, Matilda, Mother of Linton, her character 4 

Longfellow, Marian Adele, Tribute to memory of Stephens .... 423 

Longstreet, A. B., In the pulpit 32 

Locusts, I'eriodical appearance and multitude of 39 

Lumpkin, Joseph Henry 5I1 ^22 

• His opinion of Stephens as a judge and jurist 227 

Pleasant supper-table, passage with 228 

Lumpkin, Samuel, Reminiscences of Stephens, and estimate of his 

powers as an advocate 359 

Lundy, William, Reminiscences of Stephens in his college life . . 12 

Lynch-Law, pro and cofi 196, 200 

Lyon, R. F 413 

McCay, H. K 409 

McDonald, Charles J 106, 164 

Madison, James, Advocacy of adoption of the Constitution .... 27 
Meteorological Phenomenon, Description of remarkable one, in 1840 23 

Montgomery, W. W 409 

Moot-courts 68, 69, 75, 88, 89 

Nomenclature, Mistaken or misapplied, as to dogs 25 1 

To men 252 

To measures 281, 349 

Orphanage, Sensibility excited by it 83 

Olin, Rev. Dr. Stephen. Professor of Rhetoric at University of Geor- 
gia, and method of teaching 35 

Sermon at Washington 59 

Orr, G. J 13 

Palmer, Rev. Dr. B, M., Fast-day sermon at Milledgeville . . 254, 255 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 429 

Peace, Terms on which to restore 271 

Petigru, James L., Anecdote of 176 

Phi-Kappa Society II 

Pierce, Bishop G. F., Fast-day sermon at Milledgeville 254 

Witticism of 359 

Pierce, George F., junior, Resolutions commemorative of Stephens, 

offered by, in State Democratic convention 417 

Remarks thereon 418 

Platform, State Democratic of 1870, drafted by Stephens 315 

Politicians, The enemies of mankind 104 

Pottle, E. H 10 

Tribute to memory of Stephens 398 

President, Loss of the steamer, marvelous incident 95 

Mills' conjecture as to the cause, lb. 

Pretenders, Their chief frailty, excess 252 

Punishments, Necessary evils, but not designed 78 

Rhetoric, Method of studying and use of 33 

Religious impressions 25 

Sentiments 289 

Opinion of religious organizations 301 

Riot among students and citizens, at Athens, animadversions on . . 39 

Salter, Dr. R. H 304 

Letter to .- 354 

Letter of condolence from 404 

Scott, Sir Walter, Compared with Bulwer 25, 250, 251 

Secession, Oppioses the policy 241 

Not unconstitutional 285 

Sims, Robert 235 

Smith, T. J., Letters to 323, 356 

Social Compact, Significance of 283 

Speeches at Atlanta 368 

At Milledgeville 287 

Defense before United States commissioner at Macon .... 331 

Spring of the year, Influence of, on health of men and plants ... 22 
State Democratic Convention, Proceedings on occasion of .Stejihens' 

death 417 

Stephens, Aaron G 3, 5 

Stephens, Alexander, The paternal grandfather of Linton, his char- 
acter, etc I, 2 

Stephens, Alexander PL, Birth 3 

Guardian of Linton 8 

Letters to Linton during his college-life 17, 48 



430 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 

Stephens, Alexander H. — {Continued.) 

Account of Whig national convention of 1844 49 

Dr. Olin 59 

Letters 62, 65 

Routine of a busy congressman's life in 1S44 67 

Letters to Linton while a law-student at the University of Vir- 
ginia .... 69, 71, 75, 79, 85, 86, 87, 88, 90, 91, 93, 94, 96 
Opinion of the " Whig Exposition," drawn up by Linton . . 96 

May-Bradley affair in Washington 97 

Party organizations 98 

Supposed understanding between Seward and one of Taylor's 

cabinet ministers 99 

Coalition of Northern Whigs and Free-soilers 100 

Dr. Johnson first reported parliamentary debate, and wrote re- 
ported speech of Pitt which overthrew Walpole's ministry in 

1740 loi, 102 

Politicians, the enemies of mankind 104 

Letter occasioned by the death of Mrs. Stephens 126 

On Linton entering military service of Confederacy .... 242 
Presiding sense of duty, and perfect submission to will of Provi- 
dence 243 

Letter from Washington in 1866, reception there. Grant, An- 
drew Johnson, Sir Frederick Bruce, Burlingame, etc. . . . 293 

Napoleon's Caesar 298, 299 

Letter from Philadelphia, apprehensive of success of his work 

on " War between the States " 305 

Letter from Springfield, Johnson-impeachment 307 

Law-partnership 309 

Severe injury from a fall in 1869 309 

Terminations of certain English words 309, 310 

Linton's Macon speech 347 

Stephens, Andrew B., Father of Linton, character, etc 2, 3 

Stephens, Catharine B 4, 5 

Stephens, John L 4 

Stephens, Linton, Birth 4 

Patrimony 7 

First teacher, master Strange 7 

Second teacher, master Bullard 7 

Prepared for college by Fouche 8 

Enters University of Georgia 10 

Graduated 10 

Letter to A. H. S., Opinion of Judge Longstreet in the pulpit, 32 

Visits Washington City 48 

Reads law under Toombs 48 



ANALYTICAL INDEX. 43 1 

Stephens, Linton — {Continued.) 

Letters to A. H. S 50, 52 

Enters law-school at University of Virginia 48 

Letters to A. H. S. while a law-student . . 55, 62, 63, 65, 69, 

72, 73. 76, 77> 79, 81, 82, 83 

Receives diploma 89 

Enters law-school at Cambridge 89 

Admitted to the bar 91 

Rapid rise in profession, first case 91 

Partnership with Bird ^2 

Elected to the Legislature 92 

Prefers nomination of Taylor to that of Clay 93 

Supports "compromise measures" of 1850 106 

Constitutional Union party 106 

Supports Cobb for Governor 106 

Supports the Webster-Jenkins Presidential ticket 106 

Marriage 107 

Removes to Hancock 107 

Law-partnership with Johnston 107 

Middle Georgia bar 108 

Letters to Johnston io8, 109 

Elected to Georgia Senate Ill 

Supports Jenkins for Governor Ill 

Resolutions on Nebraska question I12 

Family correspondence 113, 115 

Death of infant daughter 115 

Appreciation of Addison 115 

On Know-Nothing platform of 1855 116 

On the party Ii8 

Opinion of the Stephens-Campbell debate on "Georgia and 

Ohio" 118, 121 

Appointed counsel for Georgia in controversy with Alabama, 122 

Nominated for Congress 123 

Supports the Buchanan-Breckinridge nomination 124 

Delegate to National Democratic Convention at Cincinnati . 124 
Incident at Senator Toombs' complimentary banquet to the 

Georgia delegation 124 

Death of his wife 125 

Second nomination for Congress 127 

Governor Brown 127 

Douglas and the Kansas Lecompton Constitution 129 

His charities 134 

Rejection of Kansas' admission 137 

Letters to A. H. S 139, 141 



432 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 

Stephens, Linton — (Conii'nucui.) 

To Johnston 142 

To A. H. Stephens on Kansas Conference bill, Winter Davis' 

speech 146, 148 

Declining a third nomination for Congress I49 

Outrages by British ships 150 

Recreation tour to Northwest 152 

Sympathy for Douglas in his Senatorial contest with Lincoln . 154 

Letter to Johnston 155 

Sleeplessness 160 

Visit to Washington 162 

Letters to Johnston 162, 163 

Appointed Associate Justice of Supreme Court of Georgia . . 164 

Judge Bleckley's estimate of him as a judge 165, 174 

Letter to Johnston 175 

Letter to his three eldest daughters 189 

Letters relating to domestic matters 193, 206 

Letter to Harris on miracles 210 

Letters to A. H. S 214, 216 

Decision in Jones' case 217, 218 

Harris as a judge and man . . . . ' 219 

Separation of families of negro slaves 229 

Combination of Douglas and Bell parties to defeat election of 

Lincoln 230 

Resigns his seat on Supreme Court bench 231 

General regret 232 

Critique on A. H. S.'s version of "stoning Stephen" . . . 232 

Part in Presidential campaign of i860 233 

Letter to Johnston thereon 233 

To A. H. S. on same subject 234 

To A. H. S. on secession 237, 239 

A co-operationist, delegate to State Convention of 1861, sep- 
arate State action, etc 240 

Opposes immediate secession, but yields to will of majority 

after passage of ordinance 241 

Resolutions favoring State unity 241, 242 

Enlists in military service of Confederacy, elected lieutenant- 
colonel P^ifteenth Georgia Infantry 242 

Resigns 242 

Declines colonelcy of regiment 245 

Opposes conscription 245 

Letter to J. A. Stewart on conscription, etc 245 

Letter to A. H. S., silence, best way to avoid telling "modest 

lies" . , . , 248 



ANAL\TICAL INDEX, 433 

Stephens, I>inton — (Continued.) 

Letter to Mary Grier 254 

To A. H. S., Opposition to habeas corpus suspension . . 255, 258 

Letters to A. H. S 259, 268 

Supplies to destitute in sections overrun by Federal army . . 269^ 
Opposition to State Indorsement of Confederate debt .... 269 
Letter of advice to his young friend, Alfred Alfriend . . . 275 

Letters to A. IL S 278, 281 

Extract from speech opposing granting plenary powers to the 

Governor 287 

Epitome of religious faith 289, 301 

Victim to dyspepsia 289, 291 

Letter to Barnett 295 

Method of reading an author 296 

Death of his dog " Pompey " 297 

Epitaph for the dog " Rio " * 29S 

Fondness for dogs and horses, (Note) 298-^ 

Visits his brother at Fort Warren 3°4-»^ 

His second marriage 304 

Presidential contest of 1868, Chase, Pendleton, Davis, iV <//. . 307 

Letter to Judge Harris 308 

Meaning of termination of certain English words 310 

To A. H. S. on adjournment of Superior Court e.l Richmond 

county 311 

Bledsoe as an author 312 

Coalition between Democrats and Liberal Republicans ... 314 

Georgia Democratic platform of 1870 315 

Chosen chairman State Executive Committee 315 

Resigns 316 

Letters on the subject to Crawford 316, 323 

To T. J. Smith 323 

To A. H. S., Policy of Democratic party 327 

Collision with Dr. Brown on election day, correspondence and 

adjustment 328, 329 

Arrested for alleged violation of Enforcement act, so-called . 329 

Speech at Macon in his own defense 331 

Committed, but grand jury ignore the bill 346 

Letter to Dr. White, "blood money" 348 

To P^ielder 349 

To Fitzpatrick, hint to a young lawyer 352 

Letter to Pottle on senatorial candidature 352 

To Barnett, recommending Malcolm Johiiston 354 

To A. H. S., death of B. T. Harris 354 

To Dr. Salter, detailing mishap 354 

To A. H. S., " new-departurists " 357 



434 ANALYTICAL INDEX. 

Stephens, Linton — (Conthtiied.) 

To A. H. S., Voorhees' speech 358 

To A. li". S., defense of Croley, witticisms of Bishop Pierce, 358 

To A. II. S 364 

Failing health 366 

Last political speech 368 

Last sickness and death 383 

Burial 384 

Personal appearance, tastes, habits, etc 386 

Stevens, Rev. C. W., (Note) 204 

Stewart, J. A., Letter to, on conscription, etc 245 

Stiles, Rev. Dr. J. C, As a pulpit orator 224, 225 

Strange, Master, First teaclier of Linton 7 

Streaks, Things run in 158 

Story, Joseph 59 

Notions of work, and how to work, and how to recreate ... 63 

Anecdote of 71 

His mess at Washington in 1844 89 

Social character — no Federalist— death, (Note) 89, 90 

Style, Importance of good, in writing 44 

Supreme Court, Proceedings in, occasioned by death of Stephens . . 409 
Thomas, James, Father-in-law of Stephens . . 107, 137, 150, 152, 

155. '59. 177, 183, 184, 200, 208, 214, 230, 237 

Thomas, T. W 132, 141, 143, 144, 145, 242 

Toomlis, Roliert, Legal preceptor of IJnton 48 

At Newark • • • $1 

Witty answer to Burt 93 

Opinion of "Whig Exposition" >. . . 96 

Position on Central-American (juestion 135 

On Lecompton Constitution . . 137, 150, 207, 220, 230, 237, 

238, 239, 240, 260, 264, 265 
Chairman of Supreme Court committee to report resolutions on 

occasion of Stephens' death 409 

Trammell, L. N 288 

Tucker, Henry St. George 48, 56, 64, 69, 70, 71 

His opinion of Hamilton 81 

Universalists, Doctrine of, criticized 20 

Warner, Hiram 409 

Watson, A. R., Poetical tribute to the memory of Stephens .... 424 

Webster, Daniel, Speech at Baltimore in 1844 50 

Candidate for the Presidency 106 

Whig party. Disruption of 116 

Wilson, Henry, Kindly offices of, to A. H. S. while prisoner of State 

at Fort Warren . ^ 304 

Wright, Augustus R 235 

Yancey, William L 68, 79, 238, 240 



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